JP2014514787A - Device for multi-group communication - Google Patents

Abstract

  A user equipment (UE) configured for multi-group communication is described. The UE includes a processor and instructions stored in memory in electronic communication with the processor. The UE detects a plurality of cells. The UE also uses multiple groups of one or more cells. Further, the UE adjusts the uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group so that each group has the same timing. The plurality of groups includes a primary cell (PCell) group including PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including PCell.

Description

  The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to devices for multi-group communication.

  Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful to meet consumer needs and improve portability and convenience. Consumers have become dependent on wireless communication devices and have come to expect reliable services, increased coverage, and increased functionality. A wireless communication system can provide communication to a number of wireless communication devices, each of which can enjoy services from a base station. A base station may be a fixed station that communicates with wireless communication devices.

  As wireless communication devices have advanced, improvements in communication capacity, speed and / or quality have been sought. However, improvements in communication capacity, speed and / or quality may require increased resources.

  For example, a wireless communication device can communicate with one or more devices using multiple channels or cells. However, communicating with one or more devices using multiple channels or cells may pose several challenges. As described in this description, systems and methods that enable or improve communication using multiple channels or cells may be beneficial.

  One embodiment of the present invention discloses a user equipment (UE) configured for multi-group communication, the user equipment comprising: a processor; a memory in electronic communication with the processor; instructions stored in the memory The instruction detects a plurality of cells; uses a plurality of groups of one or more cells; and uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group such that each group has the same timing The plurality of groups includes a primary cell (PCell) group including a PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including a PCell.

  The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood when the following detailed description of the invention is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user equipment (UE) and one or more evolved Node Bs (eNBs) that can implement systems and methods for multi-group communication. It is a flow diagram which shows one structure of the method for performing multi-group communication on user equipment (UE). 2 is a block diagram illustrating one configuration of a user equipment (UE) multi-group operations module that can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. It is a flow diagram which shows the more concrete structure of the method for performing multi-group communication on user equipment (UE). 6 is a block diagram illustrating another configuration of a user equipment (UE) multi-group operations module that can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. It is a flowchart which shows one structure of the method for performing multigroup communication on evolved Node B (eNB). FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating one configuration of an eNB group operations module that may be used to enable multi-group communication on an evolved Node B (eNB). It is a diagram which shows an example of an uplink transmission timing. It is a diagram which shows another example of uplink transmission timing. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a deployment scenario. 6 is a block diagram illustrating another example of a deployment scenario. It is a diagram which shows an example of the uplink transmission timing in a some cell group. It is a diagram which shows an example of uplink transmission timing adjustment in a random access response. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink transmission timing adjustment from a timing advance command medium access control (MAC) control element. It is a diagram which shows an example of common space monitoring in a some group. Fig. 4 illustrates various components available in user equipment (UE). Fig. 4 illustrates various components available in an evolved Node B (eNB).

  Disclosed is a user equipment (UE) configured for multi-group communication. The UE includes a processor and instructions stored in memory in electronic communication with the processor. The UE detects a plurality of cells. The UE further determines to use multiple groups of one or more cells. The UE further determines a primary secondary cell (PSCell) for a non-primary cell (non-PCell) group based on UE-specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In addition, the UE receives information using multiple groups. Determining the PSCell based on RRC signaling may include receiving a message that explicitly identifies the PSCell. Determining a PSCell based on RRC signaling includes a SCell (secondary cell) with a random access channel (RACH), a lowest SCell in a group configuration, or a reference cell for uplink timing Determining a PSCell based on.

  The UE may also configure a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for one or more non-PCell groups. In addition, if the UE can determine whether to adjust the timing for the non-PCell group and determines to adjust the timing for the non-PCell group, the timing is adjusted to adjust the timing for the non-PCell group. Advanced commands can be used.

  The UE can further determine whether a path loss parameter specifying a reference cell in the non-PCell group has been received. Moreover, the UE can determine the path loss based on the reference cell when the path loss parameter specifying the reference cell in the non-PCell group is received, and the path loss specifying the reference cell in the non-PCell group. If a parameter is received, a path loss indicator for a non-PCell group can be transmitted.

  The UE may also send information indicating the capability of multiple uplink time alignments. In addition, the UE can monitor a common search space for each group. The UE can further transmit an acknowledgment or negative acknowledgment (ACK / NACK) for a non-PCell group (ACK / NACK: acknowledged / negative acknowledgement).

  An evolved Node B (eNB) configured for multi-group communication is also disclosed. The eNB includes a processor and instructions stored in memory in electronic communication with the processor. The eNB transmits radio resource management (RRC) signaling that indicates a primary secondary cell (PSCell) for a non-primary cell (PCell) group. The eNB further transmits information using the non-PCell group.

  The eNB may also allocate a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for one or more non-PCell groups. In addition, the eNB can receive information indicating a plurality of uplink time alignment capabilities of the user equipment (UE). The eNB may also determine whether to adjust the timing for the non-PCell group, and if it determines to adjust the timing for the non-PCell group, the eNB can transmit a timing advance command for the non-PCell group. The eNB may also send path loss parameters for one or more non-PCell groups and receive a path loss indicator. In addition, the eNB may receive one or more acknowledgments or negative acknowledgments (ACK / NACK) on the PSCell.

  The RRC signaling indicating the PSCell may include a message that explicitly identifies the PSCell. RRC signaling indicates PSCell based on one selected from the group consisting of SCell with random access channel (RACH), lowest SCell in group configuration and SCell which is reference cell for uplink timing. it can.

  A method for multi-group communication on user equipment (UE) is also disclosed. The method includes detecting a plurality of cells. The method also includes determining to use multiple groups of one or more cells. In addition, the method includes determining a primary secondary cell (PSCell) for a non-primary cell (non-PCell) group based on UE-specific radio resource management (RRC) signaling. The method further includes receiving information using the plurality of groups.

  A method for multi-group communication on an evolved Node B (eNB) is also disclosed. The method includes transmitting radio resource management (RRC) signaling indicating a primary secondary cell (PSCell) for a non-primary cell (PCell) group. The method also includes transmitting information using a non-PCell group.

  The third generation partnership project, also called “3GPP”, is a collaborative agreement aimed at defining globally applicable technical specifications and technical reports for third and fourth generation wireless communication systems. 3GPP can define specifications for next generation mobile networks, systems and devices.

  3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is given to a project to improve the mobile phone or device standard of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to address future demands. The name. In one aspect, E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN: Evolved Universal Radio Access specification support) Because of this, UMTS has been modified.

  At least some aspects of the systems and methods disclosed herein may be described with respect to 3GPP LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) standards (eg, Release 8 and Release 10). However, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect. At least some aspects of the systems and methods disclosed herein can be utilized in other types of wireless communication systems.

  A wireless communication device is used to communicate voice and / or data to a base station, which in turn communicates with the device's network (eg, public switched telephone network (PSTN), the Internet, etc.). It can be an electronic device capable of communication. In describing the system and method herein, a wireless communication device may instead be a mobile station, user equipment (UE), access terminal, subscriber station, mobile terminal, remote station, user terminal, terminal, subscriber unit. It can also be called a mobile device. Examples of wireless communication devices include cellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, netbooks, electronic book readers, wireless modems, and the like. In the 3GPP specification, a wireless communication device is typically referred to as user equipment (UE). However, since the scope of this disclosure should not be limited to the 3GPP standard, the terms “UE” and “wireless communication device” are used herein to mean the more general term “wireless communication device”. Can be used interchangeably.

  In the 3GPP specification, a base station is typically referred to as Node B, evolved or enhanced Node B (eNB), home enhanced or evolved Node B (HeNB), or some other similar terminology. Since the scope of this disclosure should not be limited to the 3GPP standard, the terms “base station”, “Node B”, “eNB” are used herein to mean the more general term “base station”. , And “HeNB” may be used interchangeably. Moreover, the term “base station” can be used to denote an access point. An access point may be an electronic device that provides access to a network (eg, a local area network (LAN), the Internet, etc.) for a wireless communication device. The term “communication device” may be used to denote both a wireless communication device and / or a base station.

  The term “synchronized” and variations thereof can be used herein to indicate a situation where two or more events occur within overlapping time frames. In other words, two “synchronized” events can overlap to some extent in time, but not necessarily the same duration. Moreover, synchronized events may or may not start or end simultaneously.

  As used herein, a “cell” can be any communication channel specified by a standardization or regulatory body for use in International Mobile Telecommunication Advanced (IMT-Advanced). It should be noted that all or a subset thereof may be adopted by 3GPP as a band authorized for use for communication between B (eg, eNodeB) and UE. A “configured cell” is a cell in which the UE is aware of it and allowed to transmit or receive information by a Node B (eg, eNB). A “configured cell (s)” can be a serving cell (s). The UE can receive system information on all configured cells and make the required measurements. An “activated cell” is a configured cell that the UE transmits and receives. That is, an activated cell is a cell for which the UE monitors a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel), and in the case of downlink transmission, the UE performs physical downlink with respect to the cell. This is a target cell for decoding a link shared channel (PDSCH). A “deactivated cell” is a configured cell where the UE is not monitoring the transmitted PDCCH.

  The systems and methods disclosed herein may relate to how a UE behaves when a user equipment (UE) is configured for multiple timing alignment groups or multiple random access channels. In 3GPP LTE Release 10 (eg, LTE-A or Advanced E-UTRAN), carrier aggregation is introduced. Moreover, a primary cell (PCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCell) can be used.

  When carrier aggregation is configured, a user equipment (UE) can have a plurality of serving cells, that is, a primary cell (PCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCell). From the network perspective, the same serving cell may be used by one user equipment (UE) as a primary cell (PCell) and used by another user equipment (UE) as a secondary cell (SCell). A primary cell (PCell) operating according to Release 8 or Release 9 may correspond to a Release 8 or Release 9 serving cell. When operating according to Release 10, if carrier aggregation is configured, in addition to the primary cell (PCell), there may be one or more secondary cells (SCell).

  When carrier aggregation is configured, a user equipment (UE) may have only one radio resource management (RRC) connection with the network. During RRC connection establishment, re-establishment, and / or handover, one serving cell (eg, primary cell (PCell)) is configured to perform non-access layer (NAS) mobility information (eg, tracking area identifier (TAI)). (Area Identity) and security input.

  In the downlink, a carrier corresponding to a primary cell (PCell) is a downlink primary component carrier (DL PCC). In the uplink, a carrier corresponding to a primary cell (PCell) is an uplink primary component carrier (UL PCC). Depending on the capabilities of the user equipment (UE), one or more secondary component carriers (SCC) or secondary cells (SCell) can be configured to form a set of serving cells with the primary cell (PCell). In the downlink, a carrier corresponding to a secondary cell (SCell) is a downlink secondary component carrier (DL SCC). In the uplink, a carrier corresponding to a secondary cell (SCell) is an uplink secondary component carrier (UL SCC). Since a plurality of cells can share one uplink component carrier, the number of downlink component carriers may be different from the number of uplink component carriers.

  Based on the timing advance command, the UE may use a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or a sounding reference signal (SRS) of the primary cell. The uplink transmission timing can be adjusted. The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB to the UE after the UE sends the random access preamble. Whenever the eNB wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE, a timing advance command (referring to a timing advance command medium access control (MAC) control element) is similarly sent from the eNB to the UE. As the relative position of the UE changes relative to the corresponding eNB, it may be necessary to adjust uplink transmission timing from time to time to account for changes in radio frequency (RF) delay. In this way, the eNB can be defined such that all signals from any UE to the eNB arrive at the eNB at the same time or within a cyclic prefix in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. .

In the case of a random access response, the 11-bit timing advance command T _A has T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . , And can instruct the _{N TA} value by the index value of 1282, the amount of time alignment _is given by N TA = _{T A} × 16.

In other cases, a 6-bit timing advance command T _A is generated when T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . , 63 index value can indicate the adjustment of the current _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, old} ) to a new _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, new} ), where _{NTA, new} = _{NTA a old + (T a -31) ×} 16. In this case, the adjustment of the _NTA value by a positive or negative amount indicates that the uplink transmission timing is advanced or delayed by a given amount, respectively.

Transmission of the uplink radio frame number i from the UE starts N _TA × T _S seconds before the start of the corresponding downlink radio frame at the UE, provided that 0 ≦ N _TA ≦ 20512 and T _s = 1 / ( 15000 × 2048) seconds. In other words, the UE may start transmitting the uplink radio frame i before N _TA × T _S seconds before receiving the corresponding downlink radio frame i.

  Typically, the uplink (UL) transmission timing for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or sounding reference signal (SRS) of the secondary cell can be the same as that of the primary cell. However, aggregation between cells may be introduced using different transmission and / or reception sites. In this case, the UE may need to have different uplink transmission timing for each cell.

  Release 11 will consider this multiple uplink transmission timing adjustment. An example of a deployment scenario is that different component carriers may experience substantially different propagation environments and thus different propagation times because of different frequency selective repeaters. Another example of a deployment scenario is that the UE can communicate with two non-collocated sites on two carriers. Such a scenario could occur with a remote antenna or a remote radio head.

  Some approaches show that having multiple time alignment groups can solve this problem, but details of the operation of multiple time alignment groups have not been described. However, if the UE has multiple transmission timing adjustments and the time difference is relatively large, problems may arise in subframe timing and cross-carrier scheduling. For example, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission or a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission may not occur in time to prepare for data transmission.

  In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, one or more of the following aspects can be used. In addition to a group of one or more serving cells (including a primary cell (PCell)), one or more groups including at least one secondary cell (SCell) are introduced. Uplink transmissions corresponding to one or more serving cells in each group may have the same uplink transmission timing.

  Each group can have one specific cell that is used as an uplink timing reference. In a group that includes a PCell, this particular cell can be a PCell. In a group that does not include a PCell, this specific cell can be a specific SCell, referred to as a primary SCell (PSCell) or a secondary PCell (SPCell). In the specification and claims of this invention, the term “PSCell” is used to refer to a primary SCell (PSCell), a secondary PCell (SPCell) or both. The PSCell can have characteristics intermediate between the PCell and the SCell.

  PCell features can include the following. The PCell can be used as an anchor cell for security and mobility. The UE may be required to perform radio link monitoring on the PCell. The PCell can be used as a path loss criterion for other cell (s). The PCell can be used as an uplink timing reference for other cell (s). The PCell uplink timing can refer to the PCell downlink timing. PCell is always activated and can never be deactivated. PCell cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. UE can acquire the system information and / or paging information transmitted from eNB by PCell. The UE can monitor the random access response for random access and / or physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) directed random access channel (RACH) and / or contention resolution on the PCell. The UE can allocate semi-persistent scheduling resources in the PCell by the eNB. The UE can use physical random access channel (PRACH) resources in the PCell. The UE can use physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources in the PCell.

  SCell features may include the following. The SCell cannot be used as a security and mobility anchor cell. The UE will not need to perform radio link monitoring on the SCell. The SCell cannot be used as a path loss criterion for other cell (s). The SCell cannot be used as an uplink timing reference for other cell (s). The SCell can be activated or deactivated. SCell can perform cross-carrier scheduling. UE cannot acquire the system information and / or paging information transmitted from eNB by SCell. The UE cannot monitor the random access response for random access and / or the PDCCH command RACH and / or contention resolution with the SCell. The UE cannot be assigned semi-persistent scheduling resources in the SCell by the eNB. A UE cannot be assigned a PRACH resource of the SCell. The SCell's PUCCH resource cannot be allocated to the UE.

  PSCell features can include, for example, one or more of the following. PSCells cannot be used as security and mobility anchor cells. The UE may be required to perform radio link monitoring on the PSCell. The PSCell can be used as a path loss criterion for other cell (s) in its own group. The PSCell can be used as an uplink timing reference for other cell (s) in its own group. PSCell uplink timing can refer to PSCell downlink timing. PSCell is always activated and can never be deactivated. PSCells cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. UE cannot acquire the system information and / or paging information transmitted from eNB by PSCell. The UE can monitor the random access response for random access and / or PDCCH command RACH and / or contention resolution with PSCell. The UE cannot be assigned semi-persistent scheduling resources in the PSCell by the eNB. The UE can use the PRACH resource in the PSCell. The UE can use the PUCCH resource in the PSCell.

  The uplink transmission timing for the SCell's PUSCH and / or SRS in each group may be the same as the PCell in the same group or the PSCell's uplink transmission timing in the same group. In addition to the PCell common search space, the PSCell can have a common search space.

  PSCells cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. This means that no other cell can schedule the PSCell. In contrast, PSCell can schedule other cells.

  The PSCell can be indicated by UE-specific explicit or implicit radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, the SCell configured using the random access channel may be a PSCell.

  When the SCell belongs to a group that does not include the PCell, the pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell) parameter can be replaced with the pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell) parameter. In addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell, PSCell can have PUCCH. A hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) corresponding to a cell in the group can be transmitted on the PSCell in this group.

  Further details regarding various aspects of the systems and methods disclosed herein are provided below. In addition to a group of one or more serving cells including a primary cell (PCell), one or more groups including at least one secondary cell (SCell) are introduced. Uplink transmissions corresponding to one or more serving cells in each group may have the same uplink transmission timing.

  Each group can have one specific cell used as an uplink timing reference. In a group that includes a PCell, this particular cell can be a PCell. In a group that does not include a PCell, this particular cell can be a particular SCell, called the primary SCell or PSCell.

  The uplink transmission timing for SSCH PUSCH and / or SRS in each group can be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PCell (eg, in the same group), or (eg, the same It can be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PSCell (in the group). This can be consistent with the multi-serving cell concept that each serving cell has a downlink and can optionally have an uplink. Moreover, each serving downlink carrier and uplink carrier can belong to one serving cell.

  Since all signals from one or more UEs may need to reach the eNB simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in an OFDM symbol, it may be necessary to adjust uplink transmission timing. In 3GPP Release 10, the UE uses the same transmission timing for all serving cells. In that case, since there is only one group whose uplink transmission timing should be matched, it is not necessary to distinguish which cell or group of cells the timing advance command corresponds to.

  The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB to the UE on the PCell or PSCell after the UE sends the random access preamble on the PCell or PSCell. This random access response can be scheduled by a PDCCH including a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is an identifier used for scheduling a PDSCH including the random access response.

  Which PCell or SCell the received random access response is for can be distinguished depending on which serving cell the random access response is scheduled to. For example, the UE can determine which cell (eg, PCell, SCell, etc.) corresponds to the received random access response by determining to which serving cell the random access response is scheduled. The serving cell scheduled for the random access response can be determined by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the random access response. The random access response scheduled for the PCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The random access response scheduled in the PSCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink. Note also that PDCCH detection for commanding random access in the PSCell from the eNB to the UE may be in the PSCell and contention resolution for random access in the PSCell may be in the PSCell. Should.

  Whenever the eNB wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE, another timing advance command (eg, timing advance command medium access control (MAC) control element) may be transmitted from the eNB to the UE. Whether the received timing advance command is for PCell or PSCell can be distinguished based on which serving cell the timing advance command is scheduled. The serving cell on which the timing advance command is scheduled can be determined by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command. It should be noted that the timing advance command MAC control element (which can be transmitted at any time from the eNB) is different from the random access response. The timing advance command scheduled for any serving cell in the group including the PCell downlink can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The timing advance command scheduled for any serving cell (s) in the group including the PSCell downlink can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink.

  In another configuration, the timing advance command MAC control element or the MAC header of the timing advance command MAC control element can indicate to which group the command corresponds. The group instruction may be a cell index of a PSCell included in the corresponding group.

  Typically, there is only one common search space in PCell and there is no common search space in SCell. The UE can monitor a set of PDCCH candidates for control information regarding one or more activated serving cells, as configured by higher layer signaling. More than one serving cell can be configured by RRC signaling and the serving cell can be activated or deactivated by MAC signaling.

  From a search space perspective, a set of PDCCH candidates to be monitored can be defined. There is a common search space on the primary cell, and there is a UE-specific search space on the primary cell and / or the secondary cell. The common search space is cell specific and can only be on the primal cell. The UE-specific search space can be defined by a cell radio network temporary identifier, i.e., C-RNTI (Cell RNTI) (e.g., user equipment identifier (UEID)), and can be prepared for each serving cell.

  In the common search space, various types of information or data can be transmitted. For example, in the common search space, PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information, random access related information, or normal UE data can be transmitted. The physical layer of the UE can be configured by higher layers using RNTI. The UE can decode the PDCCH having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The CRC can be scrambled by the RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. Some examples of the radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) include system information RNTI (SI-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), cell RNTI (C-RNTI), random access RNTI ( RA-RNTI), semi-persistent scheduling C-RNTI (SPS C-RNTI), temporary C-RNTI, transmission power control physical uplink control channel RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI) And transmission power control physical uplink shared channel RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI: transmit po Including the er control physical uplink shared channel RNTI). In some cases, the UE can monitor the RNTI (eg, if it is configured to be monitored). RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  However, in order to have multiple time alignments, the UE may need to perform a random access procedure on the PSCell. Thus, in order to monitor the PDCCH in the common search space in the PSCell in addition to the shared search space in the PCell, a UE configured with an SCell with a random access channel may be required. Since SI-RNTI, P-RNTI and SPS C-RNTI may be sufficient to monitor in a common search space in PCell, it may not be necessary to monitor them in PSCell. Therefore, in the common search space in PSCell, C-RNTI, RA-RNTI, Temporary C-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, and TPC-PUSCH-RNTI may be monitored by the UE.

  Currently, PCell cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. This means that the SCell's PDCCH cannot schedule the PCell's PDSCH or PUSCH. In contrast, PCell can schedule other cells. The reason for this is that the PCell may always be in a connected state, and in any case, the PCell common search space may need to be monitored by the UE. It may be beneficial to use a similar concept for PSCells. In addition, timing differences between groups can complicate cross-carrier scheduling. Therefore, PSCell cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. In other words, the SCell's PDCCH cannot schedule the PSCell's PDSCH or PUSCH. In contrast, PSCell can schedule other cells.

  The PSCell can be indicated from the eNB to the UE by UE-specific explicit or implicit RRC signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell configured using a random access channel is a PSCell. In another example, the PSCell may be the lowest SCell in the group configuration. In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 can have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which indicates that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. means. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  In Release 10, each SCell can use a PCell or the SCell itself as a path loss reference cell that may be configurable by RRC signaling. If the SCell uses the PCell as a path loss reference cell, this indicates a cross carrier path loss reference. If the SCell uses the SCell as a path loss reference cell, this indicates a non-cross carrier path loss reference. In other words, PCell can be used as a path loss reference cell for other cell (s), but SCell cannot be used as a path loss reference cell for other cell (s). An RRC parameter “pathlossReference-r10” that indicates which PCell or SCell is used as a reference for the path loss measurement of the SCell can be used. This RRC parameter “pathlossReference-r10” (which can be transmitted from the eNB to the UE) can be included in each SCell configuration.

  Using different uplink transmission timing between groups may mean that each group may have a different path loss. If the group to which the SCell belongs does not include a PCell, it may not be useful to select between the PCell and the SCell. If the UE is configured with multiple uplink time alignments, a “pathlossReference-r11” parameter that indicates which PSCell or SCell is used as a reference for SCell path loss measurement in each SCell configuration Can be used. In other words, the PSCell can be used as a path loss reference cell for other cell (s) in its own group. Therefore, when the SCell belongs to a group that does not include the PCell, the parameter “pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell)” can be replaced by the “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)” parameter. In another configuration, selection from PCell, PSCell, and SCell can be utilized (eg, the “pathlossReference-r11 (pCell, psCell, sCell)” parameter can be used). The pathlossReference-r11 parameter can be sent from the eNB to the UE.

  In order to perform multiple uplink timing adjustments, the UE may need to have more than one transmitter. In Release 10, the carrier aggregation is constructed so as not to depend on the UE transmitter implementation. However, the eNB may need to know if it is possible for the UE to support multiple uplink time alignments. The UE can inform the eNB of its ability to support multiple uplink timing adjustments in certain band combinations and / or inform the eNB of the maximum supportable number of uplink timing adjustment groups. In this way, the eNB may have some information regarding the UE transmitter implementation. Typically, the PUCCH can be allocated only to the PCell in order to reduce uplink transmission power. However, when the UE is configured with multiple uplink time alignments, the eNB can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell. Periodic channel quality indicator, precoding matrix indicator and / or rank indicator (CQI / PMI / RI) report on PUCCH uses RRC messages to Since resources can be allocated semi-statically, it can be modified to be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell. It should be noted that the systems and methods disclosed herein are applicable to both frequency-division duplex (FDD) systems and time-division duplex (TDD) systems. is there. In particular, in a TDD system, each group may have a different uplink-downlink configuration in which each group defines a downlink subframe and an uplink subframe. At least in a TDD system, it may be beneficial to have a PUCCH for each group.

  Hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) (eg, acknowledgment or negative acknowledgment (ACK / NACK)) can also be mapped to the PUCCH in the PSCell. HARQ-ACK can be generated based on each group of one or more serving cells. In other words, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to cells in the group can be transmitted on the PCell or PSCell in the group. This approach can be beneficial because the HARQ process can be divided into groups, making it easier to handle buffering problems due to timing differences between groups.

  Some other advantages of the systems and methods disclosed herein are that eNBs and UEs can work well in scenarios that require multiple uplink time alignments. Another advantage of the systems and methods disclosed herein is that an eNB can allocate resources to a UE for multiple carriers with different physical timings. Yet another advantage of the systems and methods disclosed herein is that UEs and eNBs can be easily implemented. It should be noted that the systems and methods disclosed herein are carriers between frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, or between time division duplex (TDD) systems, or even between FDD and TDD systems. It can be applied to aggregation.

  In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, for uplink (UL) and / or downlink (DL) transmissions (transmission on multiple cells, carrier aggregation, primary cell (PCell) and one or more Transmissions on multiple carrier components (also called transmissions on secondary cells (SCells)).

  Various configurations are now described with reference to the Figures, where like reference numbers indicate functionally similar elements. The systems and methods generally described herein and illustrated in the figures could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed descriptions of some configurations, as represented in the figures, are not intended to limit the scope of the claims, but are merely representative of systems and methods. As used herein, the term “plurality” may indicate two or more. For example, a plurality of elements refers to two or more elements.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user equipment (UE) 102 and one or more evolved Node Bs (eNBs) 160 that can implement systems and methods for multi-group communication. The UE 102 communicates with an evolved Node B (eNB) 160 using one or more antennas 122a-n. For example, the UE 102 transmits electromagnetic signals to the eNB 160 and receives electromagnetic signals from the eNB 160 using one or more antennas 122a-n. The eNB 160 communicates with the UE 102 using one or more antennas 180a-n. It should be noted that in some configurations, the eNB 160 may be a Node B, a home evolved Node B (HeNB), or other types of base stations.

  UE 102 and eNB 160 may use one or more cells (eg, channels, carrier components, etc.) 119, 121 to communicate with each other. For example, the UE 102 and the eNB 160 may send one or more channels (eg, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), etc.) cell 119, 121 can be used. PUCCH is an example of a control channel based on 3GPP specifications. Other types of channels can also be used.

  In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, multiple types of cells 119, 121 and multiple groups of cells 119, 121 may be used for communication. As used herein, the term “group” can refer to a group of one or more entities. The primary cell (PCell) may be a primary cell according to 3GPP specifications. The secondary cell (SCell) can be a secondary cell according to the 3GPP specifications. A group of one or more cells including a PCell can be a PCell group. A cell in the PCell group can be referred to as a PCell group cell 119. Thus, the PCell group includes at least PCell. The PCell group may additionally include one or more SCells.

  One or more other groups of cells that do not include a PCell may each be a “non-PCell” group. A non-PCell group can include one or more SCells. One or more cells in a non-PCell group may be referred to as non-PCell group cell (s) 121.

  In one configuration, the cells 119, 121 can be grouped according to site. More specifically, all the cells 119 and 121 transmitted from a specific site (for example, eNB 160, repeater, etc.) can be made into one group. For example, a PCell group can be transmitted from a first site (eg, eNB 160 or repeater), while a non-PCell group can be sent from a second site (eg, a separate remote radio head (RRH) or From a separate repeater). As an example, the PCell group can be transmitted from the first eNB 160 in the first location, while the non-PCell group can be transmitted from the second remote radio head in the second location. Even if the remote radio head (RRH) or repeater is a separate transmitter 117 and / or receiver 178, multiple cells can still be provided by a single eNB 160. In another example, a PCell group can be transmitted from a first repeater at a first location, while a non-PCell group can be transmitted from a second repeater at a second location. In this case, the PCell group and the non-PCell group may be transmitted from the same site or from separate sites.

  UE 102 includes one or more transceivers 118, one or more demodulators 114, one or more decoders 108, one or more encoders 150, one or more modulators 154 and a UE multi-group operations module 124. be able to. For example, the UE 102 can use one or more receive and / or transmit paths. Depending on the configuration, multiple parallel elements 118, 108, 114, 150, 154 may be used, but for convenience only a single transceiver 118, decoder 108, demodulator 114, encoder 150, and modulator 154 are shown.

  The transceiver 118 can include one or more receivers 120 and one or more transmitters 158. One or more receivers 120 can receive signals from eNB 160 using one or more antennas 122a-n. For example, receiver 120 can receive and downconvert signals in order to generate one or more received signals 116. One or more received signals 116 may be provided to the demodulator 114. One or more transmitters 158 may transmit signals to eNB 160 using one or more antennas 122a-n. For example, one or more transmitters 158 can upconvert and transmit one or more modulated signals 156.

  Demodulator 114 can demodulate one or more received signals 116 to generate one or more demodulated signals 112. One or more demodulated signals 112 can be provided to the decoder 108. The UE 102 can use the decoder 108 to decode the signal. The decoder 108 can generate one or more decoded signals 106, 110. For example, the first UE decode signal 106 can comprise received payload data 104. The second UE decode signal 110 may comprise overhead data and / or control data. For example, the second UE decode signal 110 can provide data that can be used by the UE multi-group operations module 124 to perform one or more operations.

  As used herein, the term “module” can mean that a particular element or component can be implemented in software or a combination of hardware and software. It should be noted, however, that any element shown herein as a “module” can be implemented in hardware instead. For example, the UE multi-group operations module 124 can be implemented in hardware, software or a combination of both.

  In general, the UE multi-group operations module 124 allows the UE 102 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 using multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. The UE multi-group operations module 124 includes a multi-group determination module 126, a PSCell determination module 128, a multi-group timing module 130, a multi-group monitoring module 132, a multi-group path loss module 134, and a multi-group PUCCH. One or more of module 136 and multi-group hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) module 138 may be included.

  The multi-group determination module 126 may determine whether the UE 102 can use multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 (eg, second UE decoding Received signal information (from signal 110) can be used. For example, this determination can be based on signaling received from one or more eNBs 160, which has been sent in one direction or in response to a signal sent from UE 102.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 can detect multiple cells 119, 121. For example, the UE 102 can monitor one or more frequency bands to detect whether one or more eNBs 160 can provide access to the cells 119, 121. As an example, UE 102 may receive a broadcast, timing or beacon signal from one or more eNBs 160 indicating that one or more eNBs 160 may provide cell (s) 119, 121 for communication. In another example, the UE 102 can send a signal or message (eg, a search signal or message) to one or more eNBs 160. At that time, one or more eNBs 160 may send a signal in response to UE 102 indicating that one or more cells 119, 121 can be used for communication.

  Multi-group determination module 126 can use additional or alternative information to determine whether multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 should be used. For example, the UE 102 may determine the cell (cell (119) based on channel or cell 119, 121 quality, UE 102 capability, battery life, application type (eg, streaming media, voice call, emergency, etc.) and / or other factors. It can be determined whether a plurality of groups 119, 121) should be used.

  The multi-group determination module 126 may notify the multi-group communication capability of the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160. For example, the UE 102 may need to have more than one transmitter 158 to perform multiple uplink timing adjustments. In Release 10, the carrier aggregation is constructed so as not to depend on the UE transmitter implementation. However, the eNB 160 may need to know whether it is possible for the UE 102 to support multiple uplink time alignments. UE 102 may inform eNB 160 of its ability to support multiple uplink timing adjustments in certain band combinations (eg, send messages or signals to eNB (s) 160) and / or uplink It is possible to inform the eNB of the maximum supportable number of timing adjustment groups. In this way, the eNB 160 may have some information regarding the transmitter 158 implementation of the UE 102.

  Primary / secondary cell (PSCell) determination module 128 may determine PSCells for one or more groups of non-PCell group cell (s) 121. For example, the UE 102 can communicate with one or more eNBs 160 using one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (eg, a group of non-PCell group cell (s) 121). Non-PCell group cell (s) 121 may include one or more SCells. In some configurations, each non-PCell group may be transmitted via a different site (eg, eNB 160, repeater, etc.). The PSCell determination module 128 can determine a primary / secondary cell (PSCell) for each non-PCell group.

  For example, the PSCell determination module 128 can determine one or more PSCells based on UE-specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In another example, the PSCell may be the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of a non-PCell group). In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which means that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. To do. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Alternatively, the PSCell determination module 128 can determine one or more PSCells based on UE specific explicit RRC signaling. For example, one or more eNBs 160 may send a message to UE 102 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups).

  Multi-group timing module 130 can control (eg, adjust) transmission timing for one or more groups. For example, the multi-group timing module 130 can adjust transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. As an example, the multi-group timing module 130 can advance or delay the timing of non-PCell group signals transmitted from the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160. The transmission timing may be different between the PCell group and one or more non-PCell groups. In addition or alternatively, the transmission timing may be different between separate non-PCell groups.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 may determine that for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or sounding reference signal (SRS) of the primary cell (PCell) based on the timing advance command. Uplink transmission timing can be adjusted. The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 after the UE 102 transmits the random access preamble. Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command (referring to the timing advance command MAC element) may be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. As the relative position of the UE 102 changes relative to the corresponding eNB 160, uplink transmission timing may need to be adjusted from time to time to accommodate changes in RF delay. In this way, the eNB 160 can be defined such that all signals from the UE to the eNB 160 reach the eNB 160 simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.

If the random access response can be used timing advance command T _A of 11 bits, as described above. In other cases, the timing advance command T _A of 6 bits as described above can be instructed to adjust the current N _TA value.

  Typically, the uplink transmission timing for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or the sounding reference signal (SRS) of the secondary cell (SCell) is the same as the uplink transmission timing of the primary cell (PCell). can do. However, aggregation between cells may be introduced using different transmission and / or receiving sites (eg, different eNB 160, RRH or repeater, etc.). In this case, the UE 102 may need to have different uplink transmission timing for each cell or group of one or more cells. Multi-group timing module 130 may control or adjust transmission timing for one or more groups (eg, a PCell group and / or one or more non-PCell groups).

  In one configuration, the uplink transmission timing for PUSCH and / or SRS of each SCell 119 in the PCell group may be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PCell. In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, the uplink transmission timing for the PUSCH and / or SRS of each SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PSCell. . It should be noted that each serving cell 119, 121 has a downlink and can optionally have an uplink. Moreover, each serving downlink carrier and uplink carrier can belong to one serving cell 119, 121.

  Since the signal from the UE 102 may need to reach one or more eNBs 160 at one or more specified times, it may be necessary to adjust the uplink transmission timing. For example, all signals transmitted to the eNB 160 may need to reach the eNB 160 simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in the OFDM symbol. In 3GPP Release 10, the UE uses the same transmission timing for all serving cells. In that case, since there is only one group whose uplink transmission timing should be matched, it is not necessary to distinguish which cell or group of cells the timing advance command corresponds to.

  The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 160 in the PCell or PSCell and received by the UE 102 after the UE 102 sends the random access preamble in the PCell or PSCell. This random access response can be scheduled by a PDCCH including a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is an identifier used for scheduling the PDSCH including the random access response.

  The PCell or SCell that is the target of the received random access response can be distinguished depending on which serving cell 119, 121 the random access response is scheduled to. For example, the multi-group timing module 130 determines which serving cell the random access response is scheduled to which cell 119, 121 (eg, PCell, SCell, etc.) corresponds to the received random access response. You can decide whether to do it. The serving cell scheduled for the random access response can be determined by identifying the cells 119, 121 having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the random access response.

  In one configuration, the multi-group timing module 130 thus identifies which cell 119, 121 has a HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for random access response, so that which cell 119, 121 has received the random access received. It can be determined whether the response is supported. The random access response scheduled for the PCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The random access response scheduled in the PSCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink. For example, the multi-group timing module 130 may advance transmission timing for one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (in one or more non-PCell groups) based on a corresponding timing advance command, Or you can delay. In one configuration, the uplink transmission timing of the SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be adjusted to match the transmission timing of the PSCell in that group. Note also that PDCCH detection for commanding random access in the PSCell from the eNB to the UE may be in the PSCell and contention resolution for random access in the PSCell may be in the PSCell. Should.

  Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command (eg, timing advance command MAC control element) can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. Whether the received timing advance command is for PCell or PSCell can be distinguished based on which serving cell 119, 121 the timing advance command is scheduled. The serving cells 119, 121 on which the timing advance command is scheduled can be determined by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command. For example, the multi-group timing module 130 identifies which cell 119, 121 (eg, PCell, PSCell, etc.) the timing advance command is by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command. Can be determined.

  A timing advance command scheduled in an arbitrary serving cell in a group including a PCell downlink (for example, a PCell group) can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The transmission timing of any SCell in the PCell group can be matched with the transmission timing of the PCell.

  A timing advance command scheduled in any serving cell (s) in a group (eg, non-PCell group) including a PSCell downlink can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink. For example, the multi-group timing module 130 may advance transmission timing for one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (in one or more non-PCell groups) based on a corresponding timing advance command, Or you can delay. The transmission timing of any SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be adjusted to match that of the corresponding PSCell.

  In another configuration, the timing advance command MAC control element or the MAC header of the timing advance command MAC control element can indicate to which group the command corresponds. The group instruction may be a cell index of a PSCell included in the corresponding group.

  Multi-group monitoring module 132 can be used to monitor a common search space for multiple groups. Typically, there is only one common search space in PCell and there is no common search space in SCell. However, in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, one or more additional common search spaces can be used with one or more corresponding PSCell (s). The UE 102 can monitor a set of PDCCH candidates for control information regarding one or more activated serving cells 119, 121 as configured by higher layer signaling. More than one serving cell can be configured by RRC signaling and the serving cell can be activated or deactivated by MAC signaling.

  From a search space perspective, a set of PDCCH candidates to be monitored can be defined. Typically, there is a common search space on the primary cell (PCell) 119, and there is a UE-specific search space on the PCell 119 and / or one or more SCells. In this case, the common search space is cell specific and can only be on the PCell. A UE-specific search space can be defined by a cell radio network temporary identifier or C-RNTI (eg, user equipment identifier (UEID)) and can be prepared for each serving cell 119, 121.

  Typically, various types of information or data can be transmitted in a common search space. For example, in the common search space, PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information, random access related information, or normal UE 102 transmission data 146 can be transmitted. The physical layer of UE 102 can be defined by higher layers using RNTI. The UE 102 can decode the PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The CRC can be scrambled by the RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. Some examples of radio network temporary identifiers (RNTI) include system information RNTI (SI-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), cell RNTI (C-RNTI), random access RNTI (RA-RNTI), semi-persistent. Stent scheduling C-RNTI (SPS C-RNTI), temporary C-RNTI, transmission power control physical uplink control channel RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI) and transmission power control physical uplink shared channel RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI) )including. In some cases, the UE 102 can monitor the RNTI (eg, if it is configured to be monitored). RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  However, in order to follow the systems and methods disclosed herein and have multiple time alignments, the UE 102 may need to perform a random access procedure on the PSCell 121. Thus, in order to monitor the PDCCH in the common search space in the PSCell 121 in addition to the common search space in the PCell 119, the UE 102 configured using the SCell with a random access channel (RACH) may be required. Since SI-RNTI, P-RNTI and SPS C-RNTI may be sufficient to monitor in the common search space in PCell 119, it will not be necessary to monitor them in PSCell 121. Therefore, in the common search space in PSCell 121, C-RNTI, RA-RNTI, Temporary C-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI and TPC-PUSCH-RNTI may be monitored by multi-group monitoring module 132.

  Multi-group path loss module 134 can be used to generate one or more path loss indicators for one or more non-PCell groups. In one configuration, the multi-group path loss module 134 can additionally be used to generate a path loss indicator for the PCell. For example, when the SCell 121 belongs to a non-PCell group, the multi-group path loss module 134 can generate a path loss indicator corresponding to the designated cell 121. The cell 121 used to measure the path loss can be specified by the “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)” parameter instead of the typical path loss parameter “pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell)”.

  In Release 10, for example, each SCell can use a PCell or SCell itself as a path loss reference cell that can be configurable by RRC signaling. If the SCell uses PCell as the path loss reference cell, this indicates a cross carrier path loss reference. If the SCell uses the SCell as a path loss reference cell, this indicates a non-cross carrier path loss reference. In other words, the PCell can be used as a path loss reference for other cell (s), but the SCell cannot be used as a path loss reference for other cells (s). An RRC parameter “pathlossReference-r10” that indicates which PCell or SCell is used as a reference for SCell path loss measurement in each SCell configuration can be used. This RRC parameter “pathlossReference-r10” (which can be transmitted from the eNB to the UE) can be included in each SCell configuration. However, using different uplink transmission timings between groups according to the systems and methods disclosed herein may mean that each group may have a different path loss. If the group to which the SCell 121 belongs does not include the PCell 119, it may not be useful to select between the PCell 119 and the SCell 121. When the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, a “pathlossReference-r11” parameter that indicates which PSCell 121 or SCell 121 is used as a reference for path loss measurement of the SCell 121 in each SCell configuration Can be used. Therefore, when the SCell 121 belongs to the non-PCell group, the typical parameter “pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell)” can be replaced by “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)”. In another configuration, selection from PCell, PSCell, and SCell can be utilized (eg, the “pathlossReference-r11 (pcell, psCell, sCell” parameter can be used). The pathlossReference-r11 parameter can be sent from the eNB to the UE. it can.

  The multi-group PUCCH module 136 can configure one or more PUCCHs corresponding to one or more non-PCell groups. For example, in addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell119, PSCell121 can have PUCCH. Typically, PUCCH can be allocated only to PCell 119 for uplink transmission power reduction. However, when the UE 102 is configured using multiple uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell. Since periodic channel quality indicators, precoding matrix indicators and / or rank indicators (CQI / PMI / RI) reports on the PUCCH can quasi-statically allocate their resources using RRC messages , It can be modified to be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell 121.

  Multi-group HARQ module 138 may generate one or more ACK / NACKs for one or more non-PCell groups. For example, a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) corresponding to a non-PCell group cell 121 in the group can be transmitted on the PSCell 121 in the group.

  The hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) can be arbitrarily mapped to the PUCCH in the PSCell 121. HARQ-ACK can be generated based on each group of one or more serving cells 121. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to cells 119, 121 in the group may be transmitted on PCell 119 or PSCell 121 in the group. This approach can facilitate the handling of buffering problems due to timing differences between groups, since the HARQ process can be divided into groups.

  UE multi-group operations module 124 may provide information 142 to encoder 150. This information 142 may include instructions for encoder 150 and / or data to be encoded. For example, the UE multi-group operations module 124 instructs the encoder 150 to shift transmission timing, instructs the encoder 150 regarding the coding rate and / or type for one or more non-PCell groups, and The encoder 150 may be instructed regarding mapping of transmission data 146 to one or more non-PCell PUCCHs. In addition or alternatively, information 142 may include data to be encoded, eg, one or more of UE 102 multi-group capabilities, ACK / NACK for one or more non-PCell groups, and / or one or more non-PCell groups. A message may be included indicating the path loss indicator.

  Encoder 150 may encode transmission data 146 and / or other information 142 provided by UE multi-group operations module 124. For example, encoding data 146 and / or other information 142 may include error detection and / or correction coding, mapping data to space, time and / or frequency resources for transmission (eg, space-time block Coding (STBC: space-time block coding) and the like. Encoder 150 can provide encoded data 152 to modulator 154.

  UE multigroup operations module 124 may provide information 144 to modulator 154. This information 144 may include instructions for the modulator 154. For example, the UE multi-group operations module 124 instructs the modulator 154 to shift transmission timing and / or with respect to modulation type (eg, constellation mapping) for one or more non-PCell groups. The modulator 154 can be commanded. A modulator 154 can modulate the encoded data 152 to provide one or more modulated signals 156 to one or more transmitters 158.

  UE multi-group operations module 124 may provide information 140 to one or more transmitters 158. This information 140 may include instructions for one or more transmitters 158. For example, the UE multi-group operations module 124 can instruct one or more transmitters 158 to shift transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. One or more transmitters 158 can upconvert and transmit modulated signal (s) 156 to one or more eNBs 160. It should be noted that the UE 102 may need to have more than one transmitter 158 to perform multiple uplink timing adjustments.

  Each of the one or more eNBs 160 includes one or more transceivers 176, one or more demodulators 172, one or more decoders 166, one or more encoders 109, one or more modulators 113 and eNB group operations. A module 182 can be included. For example, the eNB 160 can use one or more reception and / or transmission paths. For convenience, only a single transceiver 176, decoder 166, demodulator 172, encoder 109 and modulator 113 are shown, although multiple parallel elements 176, 166, 172, 109, 113 may be used depending on the configuration.

  The transceiver 176 can include one or more receivers 178 and one or more transmitters 117. One or more receivers 178 may receive signals from UE 102 using one or more antennas 180a-n. For example, receiver 178 can receive and downconvert signals in order to generate one or more received signals 174. One or more received signals 174 can be provided to a demodulator 172. One or more transmitters 117 can transmit signals to the UE 102 using one or more antennas 180a-n. For example, one or more transmitters 117 can upconvert and transmit one or more modulated signals 115.

  Demodulator 172 can demodulate one or more received signals 174 to generate one or more demodulated signals 170. One or more demodulated signals 170 can be provided to a decoder 166. The eNB 160 may use the decoder 166 to decode the signal. The decoder 166 can generate one or more decoded signals 164, 168. For example, the first eNB decode signal 164 can comprise received payload data 162. The second eNB decode signal 168 may comprise overhead data and / or control data. For example, the second UE decode signal 168 can provide data that can be used by the eNB group operations module 182 to perform one or more operations.

  In general, eNB group operations module 182 allows eNB 160 to communicate with UE 102 using multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. eNB group operations module 182 includes group transmission module 196, PSCell designation module 194, group timing module 186, group scheduling module 192, group path loss module 190, group PUCCH module 184 and multi-group One or more of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) modules 188 may be included.

  The group transmission module 196 can determine the group transmission capability of the UE 102. For example, the group transmission module 196 may determine whether the UE 102 can use multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 (eg, a second UE Received signal information (from decoded signal 168) can be used. As mentioned above, UE 102 may need to have multiple transmitters 158 to use multiple transmission timing alignments. As an example, the received signal information can indicate whether the UE 102 is capable of making multiple timing adjustments (in a combination of bands) and / or can indicate the maximum supportable number of uplink timing adjustment groups. This determination can be based on signaling received from UE 102, which was sent in one direction or in response to a signal sent from eNB 160.

  A primary / secondary cell (PSCell) designation module 194 may designate PSCells for one or more groups of non-PCell group cell (s) 121. For example, the eNB 160 may communicate with the UE 102 using one or more non-PCell group cell (s) 121. Non-PCell group cell (s) 121 may include one or more SCells. The eNB 160 may communicate using one or more non-PCell groups (eg, a group of non-PCell group cell (s) 121). In some configurations, each non-PCell group can be transmitted via a different site (eg, RRH, repeater, etc.). The PSCell designation module 194 may generate and / or send a message to the UE that designates a primary secondary cell (PSCell) for one or more non-PCell groups.

  For example, the PSCell specification module 194 can specify one or more PSCells using UE-specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In another example, the PSCell may be the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of a non-PCell group). In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which means that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. To do. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Alternatively, the PSCell designation module 194 can designate one or more PSCells using UE specific explicit RRC signaling. For example, the eNB 160 may send a message to the UE 102 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups).

  The group timing module 186 can manage transmission timing for one or more groups. For example, the group timing module 186 can send a timing adjustment message (eg, a timing advance command) to the UE 102 to adjust the transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. As an example, the UE 102 can advance or delay the timing of the non-PCell group signal transmitted from the UE 102 corresponding to the eNB 160 based on one or more timing advance commands sent from the eNB 160. The transmission timing may be different between the PCell group and one or more non-PCell groups. In addition or alternatively, the transmission timing may be different between separate non-PCell groups.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 may use a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and / or a sounding reference for a primary cell (PCell) based on a timing advance command (eg, a message) from the eNB 160. Its uplink transmission timing for the signal (SRS) can be adjusted. The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 after the UE 102 transmits the random access preamble (to the eNB 160). Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command (referring to the timing advance command MAC element) is also transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. As the relative position of the UE 102 changes relative to the corresponding eNB 160, uplink transmission timing may need to be adjusted from time to time to accommodate changes in RF delay. In this way, the eNB 160 can be defined such that all signals from the UE to the eNB 160 reach the eNB 160 simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.

If the random access response can be transmitted as described above in 11-bit timing advance command _{T A} from eNB 160. In other cases, it can be sent as described above in the 6-bit timing advance command T _A from the eNB 160, can instruct the adjustment of the current N _TA value.

  Typically, the uplink transmission timing for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or the sounding reference signal (SRS) of the secondary cell (SCell) is the same as the uplink transmission timing of the primary cell (PCell). can do. However, aggregation between cells may be introduced using different transmission and / or receiving sites (eg, different eNBs, RRHs or repeaters, etc.). In this case, the eNB 160 may need to have different uplink transmission timing for each cell or group of one or more cells. The group timing module 186 may generate and send commands to control or adjust transmission timing for one or more groups (eg, a PCell group and / or one or more non-PCell groups). it can.

  The timing advance command in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 160 in the PCell or PSCell and received by the UE 102 after the UE 102 sends the random access preamble in the PCell or PSCell. This random access response can be scheduled by a PDCCH including a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is an identifier used for scheduling the PDSCH including the random access response. The PCell or SCell for the random access response can be instructed by which serving cell 119, 121 the random access response is scheduled to. The serving cell on which the random access response is scheduled can be indicated by the cells 119 and 121 having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the random access response.

  Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command (eg, timing advance command MAC element) can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. Whether the received timing advance command is for the PCell or the PSCell can be instructed based on which serving cell 119, 121 the timing advance command is scheduled. For example, which cell 119, 121 (eg, PCell, PSCell, etc.) the timing advance command is for can be indicated by the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command.

  In some configurations, the eNB 160 may use a timing advance command MAC control element that can indicate which group the command corresponds to, or a MAC header of the timing advance command MAC control element. The group instruction may be a cell index of a PSCell included in the corresponding group.

  Group scheduling module 192 can be used to schedule communications for one or more groups of cells 119, 121. For example, the group scheduling block / module 192 can allocate communication resources to the UE 102 by sending a random access response to the UE 102. As described above, the random access response can also include a timing advance command, such as generated by the group timing module 186. In some cases, scheduling information may be sent to UE 102 using PDCCH.

  For example, a PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information can be transmitted by the eNB 160. The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The eNB 160 can scramble the CRC using RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNT can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information. As described above, PSCells cannot be cross-carrier scheduled, but one or more SCells can be scheduled.

  The group path loss module 190 can be used to manage one or more path loss parameters for one or more non-PCell groups. For example, if the SCell 121 belongs to a non-PCell group, the group path loss module 190 may specify a typical path loss parameter (e.g., for specifying the non-PCell group cell 121 as a path loss criterion). A path loss parameter (eg, pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)) can be generated instead of pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell), which is used by the UE 102 to measure the path loss. Cell can be specified.

  The group PUCCH module 184 can be used to allocate one or more PUCCHs corresponding to one or more non-PCell groups. For example, in addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell119, PSCell121 can have PUCCH. Typically, PUCCH can be allocated only to PCell 119 for uplink transmission power reduction. However, when the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell 121.

  Group HARQ module 188 may receive one or more ACK / NACKs for one or more non-PCell groups. The eNB 160 may retransmit information that was not correctly received by the UE 102 using one or more ACK / NACKs. The ACK / NACK corresponding to the non-PCell group cell 121 in the group can be received by the eNB 160 on the PSCell 121 in the group. ACK / NACK (s) can optionally be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell 121. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to cells 119, 121 in the group may be received on PCell 119 or PSCell 121 in the group. This approach can be beneficial because the HARQ process can be divided into groups and the handling of buffering problems due to timing differences between groups can be facilitated.

  eNB group operations module 182 may provide information 101 to encoder 109. This information 101 may include instructions for encoder 109 and / or data to be encoded. For example, eNB group operations module 182 may instruct encoder 109 regarding the coding rate and / or type for one or more non-PCells, and / or for transmission data 105 to one or more non-PCell PUCCHs The encoder 109 can be commanded for mapping. Additionally or alternatively, the information 101 can include a message indicating data to be coded, eg, timing advance command, scheduling information, channel assignment and / or other control information.

  Encoder 109 can encode transmission data 105 and / or other information 101 provided by eNB group operations module 182. For example, encoding data 105 and / or other information 101 may include error detection and / or correction coding, mapping data to space, time and / or frequency resources for transmission (eg, space-time block Coding (STBC)) and the like. The encoder 109 can provide the encoded data 111 to the modulator 113. The transmission data 105 can include network data to be relayed to the UE 102.

  eNB group operations module 182 may provide information 103 to modulator 113. This information 103 can include instructions for the modulator 113. For example, eNB group operations module 182 may instruct modulator 113 regarding the modulation type (eg, constellation mapping) for one or more non-PCell groups. Modulator 113 can modulate the encoded data 111 to provide one or more modulated signals 115 to one or more transmitters 117.

  The eNB group operations module 182 may provide information 198 to one or more transmitters 117. This information 198 can include instructions for one or more transmitters 117. For example, the eNB group operations module 182 may instruct one or more transmitters 117 to form one or more non-PCell group cell (s) 121. One or more transmitters 117 can upconvert and transmit modulated signal (s) 115 to UE 102.

  FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating one configuration of a method 200 for performing multi-group communication on UE 102. The UE 102 can detect 202 a plurality of cells 119, 121. For example, UE 102 may receive tuning signals, beacons, messages, etc. from one or more eNBs 160 indicating that multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 may be used for communication. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 102 sends a signal or message (eg, access request, authentication information, etc.) to the one or more eNBs 160 indicating that the UE 102 wants to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 be able to. In this case, one or more eNBs 160 may respond by sending a signal that permits UE 102 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160.

  The UE 102 may determine 204 whether to use multiple groups of cells 119, 121 to communicate. If the UE 102 determines 204 that it does not communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121, the UE 102 can communicate 206 using a single group of cells 119. In some configurations, the UE 102 may not be able to communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121, or for other reasons (eg, low battery power, low channel quality in non-PCell groups, etc.) , UE 102 may determine 204 not to communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121.

  If the UE 102 determines 204 to communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121, the UE 102 may determine 208 a PSCell for each non-PCell group. For example, the UE 102 can communicate with one or more eNBs 160 using one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (eg, a group of non-PCell group cell (s) 121). Non-PCell group cell (s) 121 may include one or more SCells. In some configurations, each non-PCell group can be transmitted from a different site (eg, eNB 160, RRH, repeater, etc.). The PSCell determination module 128 can determine a primary / secondary cell (PSCell) for each non-PCell group.

  For example, the UE 102 may determine 208 one or more PSCells based on UE-specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be determined 208 as a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In another example, the PSCell may be determined 208 as the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of the non-PCell group). In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which means that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. To do. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Instead, the UE 102 can determine 208 one or more PSCells based on UE-specific explicit RRC signaling. For example, the UE 102 may receive a message from one or more eNBs 160 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups).

  The UE 102 can determine 210 whether to adjust the transmission timing. For example, if the UE 102 receives one or more timing advance commands from one or more eNBs 160, the UE 102 may determine 210 to adjust uplink transmission timing. However, if the UE 102 does not receive the timing advance command, the UE 102 can determine 210 that it does not adjust the uplink transmission timing.

  If UE 102 determines 210 to adjust uplink transmission timing, then UE 102 can use 212 a timing advance command to adjust uplink timing for the group of cells 119, 121. For example, the UE 102 can adjust the transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. As an example, the UE 102 may advance or delay the timing of non-PCell group signals transmitted from the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160 by using 212 a timing advance command that specifies an amount of time delay or advancement. it can. The transmission timing may be different between the PCell group and one or more non-PCell groups. In addition or alternatively, the transmission timing may be different between separate non-PCell groups.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 uses 212 the received timing advance command to provide a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or a sounding reference signal (primary cell (PCell)). Its uplink transmission timing for SRS can be adjusted. The timing advance command received in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 106 to the UE 102 after the UE 102 sends the random access preamble. Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, a separately received timing advance command (refer to the timing advance command MAC element) can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102.

If the random access response can be used timing advance command T _A of 11 bits, as described above. In other cases, the timing advance command T _A of 6 bits as described above can be instructed to adjust the current N _TA value.

  Typically, the uplink transmission timing for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or sounding reference signal (SRS) of the secondary cell (SCell) may be the same as that of the primary cell (PCell). it can. However, aggregation between cells may be introduced using different transmission and / or receiving sites (eg, different eNBs, RRHs or repeaters, etc.). In this case, the UE 102 may need to have different uplink transmission timing for each cell or group of one or more cells. The UE 102 may control or adjust transmission timing for one or more groups (eg, a PCell group and / or one or more non-PCell groups).

  In one configuration, the uplink transmission timing for PUSCH and / or SRS of each SCell 119 in the PCell group may be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PCell. In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, the uplink transmission timing for the PUSCH and / or SRS of each SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be the same as the uplink transmission timing for the corresponding PSCell. .

  After the UE 102 sends a random access preamble on a PCell or PSCell, a timing advance command in the random access response that is transmitted from the eNB 160 and received by the UE 102 on the PCell or PSCell can be used 212. This random access response can be scheduled by a PDCCH including a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is an identifier used for scheduling the PDSCH including the random access response.

  The PCell or SCell for the received random access response can be distinguished depending on which serving cell 119, 121 the random access response is scheduled to. For example, the UE 102 can determine which cell 119, 121 (eg, PCell, SCell, etc.) corresponds to the received random access response by determining to which serving cell the random access response is scheduled. The serving cell scheduled for the random access response can be determined by identifying the cells 119, 121 having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the random access response.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 thus determines which cell 119, 121 corresponds to the received random access response by identifying the cell 119, 121 having a HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for random access response. it can. The random access response scheduled for the PCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The random access response scheduled in the PSCell downlink (DL) can be used for uplink (UL) transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink. For example, the UE 102 may advance or delay the timing of transmission for one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (in one or more non-PCell groups) based on the corresponding timing advance command. In one configuration, the transmission timing of the SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be adjusted to match the transmission timing of the PSCell in that group.

  Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, a separately received timing advance command (eg, timing advance command MAC element) can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. Whether the received timing advance command is for PCell or PSCell can be distinguished based on which serving cell 119, 121 the timing advance command is scheduled. The serving cells 119 and 121 on which the timing advance command is scheduled can be determined by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command. For example, the UE 102 can determine which cell 119, 121 (eg, PCell, PSCell, etc.) the timing advance command is for by identifying the cell having the HARQ entity, PDCCH or PDSCH for the timing advance command.

  Timing advance commands scheduled for any serving cell in a group including a PCell downlink (eg, PCell group) may be used 212 for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PCell uplink. The transmission timing of any SCell in the PCell group may coincide with the transmission timing of the PCell.

  Timing advance commands scheduled for any serving cell (s) in a group including a PSCell downlink (eg, a non-PCell group) may be used 212 for uplink transmission timing adjustment for the PSCell uplink. For example, the UE 102 may advance or delay the timing of transmission for one or more non-PCell group cells 121 (in one or more non-PCell groups) based on the corresponding timing advance command. The transmission timing of any SCell 121 in the non-PCell group can be adjusted to coincide with the transmission timing of the corresponding PSCell.

  In another configuration, the timing advance command MAC control element or the MAC header of the timing advance command MAC control element can indicate to which group the command corresponds. The group indication may be a cell index of PSCell cells included in the corresponding group.

  Regardless of whether the UE 102 determines 210 to adjust the transmission timing, the UE 102 can determine 214 whether a path loss parameter specifying the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group has been received. For example, if the UE 102 receives the “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)” parameter, the UE 102 can then determine 214 that a path loss parameter specifying the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group has been received. However, if, for example, the UE 102 does not receive any path loss parameters (or receives, for example, “pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell)”), then the UE 102 specifies the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group. It can be determined 214 that no path loss parameters have been received.

  If the UE 102 determines 214 that a path loss parameter specifying the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group has been received, then the UE 102 can determine 216 the path loss based on the reference cell 121. For example, the UE 102 can determine the received signal strength for a specified cell 121 and can determine 216 the path loss based on the received signal strength. As an example, the UE 102 can subtract the received signal strength from the transmitted signal strength (as indicated by the eNB 160) to determine 216 the path loss. In some configurations, the UE 102 may generate a path loss indicator for transmission to the eNB 160 to indicate path loss.

  Regardless of whether UE 102 determines 214 that a path loss parameter specifying a reference cell 121 in a non-PCell group has been received, UE 102 can communicate 218 with one or more eNBs 160 using multiple groups. For example, the UE 102 can transmit information to and / or receive information from one or more eNBs 160 using one or more PCell group cells 119 and one or more non-PCell group cells 121.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one configuration of a UE multi-group operations module 324 that can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. In general, the UE multi-group operations module 324 enables the UE 102 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 using multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. The UE multi-group operations module 324 may include one or more of a multi-group determination module 326, a PSCell determination module 328, a multi-group timing module 330 and a multi-group path loss module 334.

  Multi-group decision block / module 326 can generate multi-group control information 331. In order to enable multi-group communication, some or all of the multi-group control information 331 may be provided and used by the UE 102 and / or transmitted to one or more eNBs.

  The multi-group determination module 326 can use the received signal information 323 to determine whether the UE 102 can use multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. For example, this determination can be based on signaling received from one or more eNBs 160, which has been sent in one direction or in response to a signal sent from UE 102.

  In one configuration, the UE 102 can detect multiple cells 119, 121. For example, the UE 102 can monitor received signal information 323 (eg, one or more frequency bands) to detect whether one or more eNBs 160 can provide access to the cells 119,121. As an example, UE 102 may receive a broadcast, timing or beacon signal from one or more eNBs 160 indicating that one or more eNBs 160 may provide cell (s) 119, 121 for communication. In another example, the UE 102 can send a signal or message (eg, a search signal or message) to one or more eNBs 160. One or more eNBs 160 may then send a signal in response to UE 102 indicating that one or more cells 119, 121 can be used for communication.

  Multi-group determination module 326 can use additional or alternative information to determine whether multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 should be used. For example, the UE 102 may determine the cell (cell (119) based on channel or cell 119, 121 quality, UE 102 capability, battery life, application type (eg, streaming media, voice call, emergency, etc.) and / or other factors. It can be determined whether a plurality of groups 119, 121) should be used. The multi-group control information 331 can indicate whether to use multi-group communication. This indication may be provided to the UE 102 to allow the UE 102 to use multiple groups of cells 119,121.

  The multi-group determination module 326 may notify the multi-group communication capability of the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160. For example, the UE 102 may need to have more than one transmitter 158 to perform multiple uplink timing adjustments. Multi-group control information 331 may be sent to inform eNB 160 of UE 120's ability to support multiple uplink timing adjustments in certain band combinations, and / or the maximum of uplink timing adjustment groups The supportable number can be notified to the eNB 160.

  Primary / secondary cell (PSCell) determination module 328 may determine PSCells for one or more groups of non-PCell group cell (s) 121. In one configuration, the PSCell decision block / module 328 can use the PSCell designation information 325 to generate the PSCell information 333. The PSCell information 333 can indicate a primary / secondary cell (PSCell) for each non-PCell group.

  For example, the PSCell determination module 328 can generate the PSCell information 333 based on the PSCell designation information 325. In one configuration, the PSCell designation information 325 may be UE specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, a SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be determined as a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In another example, the PSCell may be the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of a non-PCell group). In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which means that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. To do. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Alternatively, the PSCell determination module 328 can determine one or more PSCells based on explicit PSCell designation information 325 (eg, UE specific explicit RRC signaling). For example, one or more eNBs 160 may send a message to UE 102 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups). In this case, the PSCell determination module 328 can indicate one or more designated PSCells to the PSCell information 333.

  Multi-group timing module 330 can control (eg, adjust) transmission timing for one or more groups based on one or more timing advance commands 327. Multi-group timing module 330 can generate one or more timing adjustments 335. For example, the timing adjustment (s) 335 can adjust the transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. As an example, the timing adjustment 335 can use the timing advance command (s) 327 to advance or delay the timing of non-PCell group signals transmitted from the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160.

  Multi-group timing module 330 can adjust timing as described in connection with multi-group timing module 130 in FIG. For example, the timing advance command 327 may be included in the random access response or may be a MAC element. As described above, the multi-group timing module 330 can determine which cell (s) 119, 121 the timing advance command 327 corresponds to.

  The multi-group timing module 330 then proceeds to advance or delay the transmission timing of the one or more cells 119, 121 by the amount indicated by the timing advance command (s) 327. Timing adjustment (s) 335 can be generated. For example, the timing adjustment (s) 335 may cause the PCell uplink radio frame (and any uplink radio frame corresponding to any SCell 119 in the PCell group) to precede the PCell downlink radio frame by a certain amount of time. You can indicate that you have to be adjusted. In addition or alternatively, the timing adjustment (s) 335 may be used to determine whether the PSCell uplink radio frame (and any uplink radio frame corresponding to any SCell 121 in the corresponding PSCell group) is more than the PSCell downlink radio frame. You can indicate that it must be adjusted to lead by a certain amount of time.

  The multi-group path loss module 334 can be used to generate one or more path loss indicators 337 based on the path loss information 329 for one or more non-PCell groups. In one configuration, the multi-group path loss module 334 can additionally be used to generate a path loss indicator 337 based on the path loss information 329 for the PCell group. For example, when the SCell 121 belongs to a non-PCell group, the multi-group path loss module 334 can generate a path loss indicator 337 corresponding to the designated cell 121. The cell 121 used to measure the path loss is not the path loss information 329 (for example, “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell) instead of the typical path loss parameter“ pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell) ”). , SCell) "parameter).

  When the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, a “pathlossReference-r11” parameter indicating which PSCell 121 or SCell 121 is used as a reference for path loss measurement for the SCell 121 in each SCell configuration Can be included in the path loss information 329. Therefore, when the SCell 121 belongs to the non-PCell group, the typical parameter “pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell)” can be replaced by the “pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)” parameter. In another configuration, selection from PCell, PSCell, and SCell can be utilized (eg, as indicated by path loss information 329). More specifically, selection from PCell, PSCell, and SCell can be used (eg, “pathlossReference-r11 (pCell, psCell, sCell” parameter can be used). The pathlossReference-r11 parameter is sent from the eNB to the UE. Can do.

  FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a more specific configuration of a method 400 for performing multi-group communication on the UE 102. The UE 102 can detect 402 a plurality of cells 119, 121. For example, the UE 102 may detect 402 a plurality of cells 119, 121 as described in connection with step 202 of FIG. 2 above.

  The UE 102 may transmit 404 information indicating the capability of multiple uplink time alignments to one or more eNBs 160. For example, UE 102 may send 404 a message or signal to one or more eNBs 160 indicating that it is possible for UE 102 to use multiple time alignments. As an example, this can indicate that the UE 102 has multiple transmitters 158.

  The UE 102 may determine 406 whether to use multiple groups of cells 119, 121 to communicate. For example, this can be done as described above in connection with step 204 of FIG. If the UE 102 determines 406 not to communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121, the UE 102 may communicate 408 using a single group of cells 119.

  If the UE 102 determines 406 to communicate using multiple groups of cells 119, 121, the UE 102 may determine 410 a PSCell 121 for each non-PCell group. This can be done as described above in connection with step 208 of FIG.

  The UE 102 can monitor 412 the common search space for each of the one or more groups. Typically, there is only one common search space in PCell and there is no common search space in SCell. However, in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, one or more additional common search spaces can be used with one or more corresponding PSCell (s). The UE 102 may monitor 412 a set of PDCCH candidates for control information regarding one or more activated serving cells 119, 121 as configured by higher layer signaling. More than one serving cell 119, 121 can be configured by RRC signaling and the serving cell can be activated or deactivated by MAC signaling.

  From the search space perspective, a set of PDCCH candidates to be monitored 412 can be defined. Typically, there is a common search space on the primary cell (PCell) 119, and there is a UE-specific search space on the PCell 119 and / or one or more SCells. In this case, the common search space is cell specific and can only be on the PCell. A UE-specific search space can be defined by a cell radio network temporary identifier or C-RNTI (eg, user equipment identifier (UEID)) and can be prepared for each serving cell 119, 121.

  Typically, various types of information or data can be transmitted in a common search space. For example, in the common search space, PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information, random access related information, or normal UE 102 transmission data 146 can be transmitted. The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The UE 102 can decode the PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The CRC can be scrambled by the RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. In some cases, the UE 102 may monitor 412 the RNTI (eg, if it is configured to be monitored). RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  However, in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein and to have multiple time alignments, the UE 102 may need to perform a random access procedure on the PSCell 121. Thus, a UE 102 configured with a SCell having a random access channel (RACH) may need to monitor 412 the PDCCH in the common search space in PSCell 121 in addition to the common search space in PCell 119. SI-RNTI, P-RNTI and SPS C-RNTI may need to be monitored 412 in the common search space in PCell 119, so it would not be necessary to monitor them in PSCell 121. Therefore, the C-RNTI, RA-RNTI, temporary C-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, and TPC-PUSCH-RNTI may be monitored 412 by the multi-group monitoring module 132 in the common search space in the PSCell 121.

  UE 102 can optionally configure 414 PUCCH for one or more non-PCell groups when assigned by eNB 160. For example, in addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell119, PSCell121 can have PUCCH. Typically, PUCCH can be allocated only to PCell 119 for uplink transmission power reduction. However, when the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell 121. For example, the UE 102 may receive a message or command from one or more eNBs 160 that allocates a PUCCH for one or more non-PCell groups. UE 102 accordingly configures 414 PUCCH for one or more non-PCell groups as directed by one or more eNBs 160 (eg, establishes, sends control signals therein, etc.). it can. It should be noted that periodic channel quality indicators, precoding matrix indicators and / or rank indicator (CQI / PMI / RI) reports on PUCCH use RRC messages to quasi-statically Since it can be assigned, it can be modified to be mapped to the PUCCH in PSCell 121.

  The UE 102 may determine 416 whether to adjust transmission timing. For example, if the UE 102 receives one or more timing advance commands from one or more eNBs 160, the UE 102 may determine 416 to adjust the transmission timing. However, if the UE 102 does not receive any transmission timing command, the UE 102 can determine 416 that it does not adjust the transmission timing.

  If the UE 102 determines 416 to adjust the transmission timing, the UE 102 can then use 418 the timing advance command to adjust the uplink timing for the group of cells 119, 121. For example, this can be done as described above in connection with step 212 of FIG.

  Regardless of whether the UE 102 determines 416 to adjust the transmission timing, the UE 102 can determine 420 whether a path loss parameter specifying the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group has been received. For example, this can be done as described in connection with step 214 of FIG. 2 above.

  If the UE 102 determines 420 that a path loss parameter specifying the reference cell 121 in the non-PCell group has been received, then the UE 102 can determine 422 the path loss based on the reference cell 121. For example, this can be done as described above in connection with step 216 of FIG. UE 102 may transmit 424 a path loss indicator. For example, the UE 102 can generate a path loss indicator based on the determined path loss 422. The path loss indicator can identify a path loss as measured by the UE 102 with respect to the reference cell. The UE 102 can transmit 424 this path loss indicator to the eNB 160.

  Regardless of whether UE 102 determines 420 that a path loss parameter specifying a reference cell 121 in a non-PCell group has been received, UE 102 may have one or more HARQ- on the PSCell for each non-PCell group. ACK (s) (eg, ACK / NACK) can optionally be transmitted 426. For example, a HARQ-ACK message (eg, one or more ACK / NACK) can be generated based on each group of one or more serving cells 121. As an example, the UE 102 can generate a negative acknowledgment (NACK) and transmit 426 when a specified amount of data (eg, a packet) is received in error (and, for example, cannot be recovered). Additionally or alternatively, the UE 102 can generate and transmit 426 an acknowledgment (ACK) for a specified amount of data (eg, a packet) that is correctly received. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to cells 121 in the group may be transmitted 426 on the PSCell in the group. Optionally, on the PCell 119, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to the cells 119 in the PCell group can be transmitted. If PUCCH is configured 414 for at least one non-PCell group, a HARQ-ACK message (eg, one or more ACK / NACK) can be optionally mapped to the PUCCH in PSCell 121.

  UE 102 may communicate 428 with one or more eNBs 160 using multiple groups. For example, the UE 102 can transmit information to and / or receive information from one or more eNBs 160 using one or more PCell group cells 119 and one or more non-PCell group cells 121. .

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating another configuration of a UE multi-group operations module 524 that can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. In general, the UE multi-group operations module 524 may allow the UE 102 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160 using multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. The UE multi-group operations module 524 includes a multi-group determination module 526, a PSCell determination module 528, a multi-group timing module 530, a multi-group monitoring module 532, a multi-group path loss module 534, and a multi-group PUCCH. One or more of module 536 and multi-group HARQ module 538 may be included.

  Multi-group decision block / module 526 can generate multi-group control information 531. Some of the multi-group control information 531 may be used by the UE 102 to enable multi-group communication and / or transmitted to one or more eNBs 160. The multi-group determination module 526 can also use the received signal information 523. For example, the multi-group determination module 526 can operate similarly to the multi-group determination module 326 described in connection with FIG. 3 above.

  Primary / secondary cell (PSCell) determination module 528 may determine PSCells for one or more groups of non-PCell group cell (s) 121. In one configuration, PSCell decision block / module 528 can use PSCell designation information 525 to generate PSCell information 533. The PSCell information 533 can indicate a primary / secondary cell (PSCell) for each non-PCell group. For example, the PSCell determination module 528 can operate similarly to the PSCell determination module 328 described in connection with FIG. 3 above.

  Multi-group timing module 530 can control (eg, adjust) uplink transmission timing for one or more groups based on one or more timing advance commands 527. Multi-group timing module 530 can generate one or more timing adjustments 535. For example, the timing adjustment (s) 535 can adjust the transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. For example, the timing adjustment 535 can use the timing advance command (s) 527 to advance or delay the timing of non-PCell group signals transmitted from the UE 102 to one or more eNBs 160. The multi-group timing module 530 can adjust timing in the same manner as the multi-group timing module 330 described in connection with FIG. 3 above.

  Multi-group monitoring module 532 can be used to monitor a common search space for multiple groups. For example, the multi-group monitoring module 532 can use the downlink information 539 (eg, one or more PDCCH candidates) to generate the multi-group control information 545. In accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein, one or more additional common search spaces can be used with one or more corresponding PSCell (s). The UE 102 can monitor a set of PDCCH candidates for control information regarding one or more activated serving cells 119, 121 as configured by higher layer signaling. More than one serving cell 119, 121 can be configured by RRC signaling and the serving cell can be activated or deactivated by MAC signaling.

  From a search space perspective, a set of PDCCH candidates to be monitored (eg, downlink information 539) can be defined. Typically, there is a common search space on the primary cell (PCell) 119, and there is a UE-specific search space on the PCell 119 and / or one or more SCells. In this case, the common search space is cell specific and can only be on PCell 119. A UE-specific search space can be defined by a cell radio network temporary identifier or C-RNTI (eg, user equipment identifier (UEID)) and can be prepared for each serving cell 119, 121.

  In the common search space, various types of information or data can be transmitted. For example, in the common search space, PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information, random access related information, or normal UE 102 transmission data 146 can be transmitted. Multi-group control information 545 generated by multi-group monitoring module 532 can identify or include such information (eg, scheduling of system information or paging information, random access related information, etc.). This multi-group control information 545 can be used to control communications for one or more groups (eg, non-PCell groups).

  The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The UE 102 can decode the PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the RNTI. The downlink (control) information 539 carried by the PDCCH may have an attached CRC. The CRC can be scrambled by the RNTI (and can be descrambled by the UE 102). For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. In some cases, the UE 102 can monitor the RNTI (eg, if it is configured to be monitored). RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  To follow the systems and methods disclosed herein and have multiple time alignments, the UE 102 may need to perform a random access procedure on the PSCell 121. Thus, UE 102 configured with SCells with random access channels (RACH) may be required to monitor PDCCH in the common search space in PSCell 121 in addition to the common search space in PCell 119. Since SI-RNTI, P-RNTI and SPS C-RNTI may be sufficient to monitor in the common search space in PCell 119, it will not be necessary to monitor them in PSCell 121. Therefore, in the common search space in PSCell 121, C-RNTI, RA-RNTI, Temporary C-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, and TPC-PUSCH (which may occur in downlink information 539) by multi-group monitoring module 532 -RNTI should be monitored.

  The multi-group path loss module 534 can be used to generate one or more path loss indicators 537 based on the path loss information 529 for one or more non-PCell groups. In one configuration, the multi-group path loss module 534 can additionally be used to generate a path loss indicator 537 based on the path loss information 529 for the PCell group. For example, the multi-group path loss module 534 can operate similarly to the multi-group path loss module 334 described in connection with FIG. 3 above.

  The multi-group PUCCH module 536 can configure one or more PUCCHs corresponding to one or more non-PCell groups. For example, the multi-group PUCCH module 536 can generate the PUCCH configuration information 547 based on the allocation information 541. As an example, in addition to the PUCCH corresponding to PCell 119, PSCell 121 may have PUCCH. Typically, PUCCH can only be allocated to PCell 119 for uplink transmission power reduction. However, when the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell 121. More specifically, UE 102 may receive assignment information 541 that indicates a command or request to establish one or more PUCCHs from one or more eNBs 160. The multi-group PUCCH module 536 is based on the allocation information 541 and allows PUCCH configuration information 547 (eg, channel information, timing information, etc.) that allows the UE 102 to establish one or more PUCCHs with one or more eNBs 160. Can provide. Because periodic channel quality indicators, precoding matrix indicators and / or rank indicator (CQI / PMI / RI) reports on PUCCH can allocate their resources semi-statically using RRC messages , It can be modified to be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell 121.

  The multi-group HARQ module 538 can generate one or more group ACK / NACK 549 for one or more non-PCell groups based on the error information 543. The error information 543 can identify information that was not correctly received from one or more eNBs 160 and / or could not be recovered. The multi-group HARQ module 538 can generate one or more group ACK / NACKs 549 corresponding to information that was received in error or that cannot be recovered. Group ACK / NACK 549 may correspond to one or more specific cells (eg, may be mapped). For example, a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) corresponding to a non-PCell group cell 121 in the group can be transmitted on the PSCell 121 in the group.

  The hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) can be arbitrarily mapped to the PUCCH in the PSCell 121. HARQ-ACK can be generated based on each group of one or more serving cells 121. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) (eg, ACK / NACK) corresponding to cells 119, 121 in the group may be transmitted on PCell 119 or PSCell 121 in the group.

  FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating one configuration of a method 600 for performing multi-group communication on eNB 160. The eNB 160 may optionally receive 602 information indicating the UE 102's multiple uplink time alignment capabilities. For example, the eNB 160 may receive information or a message from the UE 102 that indicates that the UE 102 can use multiple uplink transmission timing alignments. More specifically, this information or message may inform the eNB 160 of the UE 102's ability to support multiple uplink timing adjustments in certain band combinations and / or maximum support for uplink timing adjustment groups. The possible number can be notified to the eNB 160. In some configurations, the eNB 160 may first query the UE 102 (eg, send a message to the UE 102) whether the UE 102 is capable of supporting multiple uplink timing adjustments.

  The eNB 160 may transmit 604 radio resource management (RRC) signaling indicating one or more PSCells. For example, the eNB 160 may specify one or more PSCells by sending UE-specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In this example, signaling indicating or specifying RACH can indicate PSCell specification to UE 102. In another example, the PSCell may be the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of a non-PCell group). Thus, by way of example, signaling from the eNB 160 that can be used to set the SCell ranking may indicate the PSCell. In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which means that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. To do. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Alternatively, the eNB 160 may specify one or more PSCells using UE specific explicit RRC signaling. For example, the eNB 160 may send a message to the UE 102 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups).

  The eNB 160 may determine 606 whether to adjust timing. In one configuration, the eNB 160 may use a signal or message (eg, a random access request) sent from the UE 102 to determine whether to adjust uplink timing. For example, the eNB 160 can determine whether one or more uplink transmissions from the UE 102 arrive within a time frame or schedule. If the uplink transmission from UE 102 is not aligned or synchronized to be within a time frame, eNB 160 may determine 606 to adjust timing. However, if the uplink transmission from the UE 102 is within the time frame, the eNB 160 can determine 606 not to adjust the timing. In some configurations, time frames can be defined in terms of cyclic prefixes in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Additionally or alternatively, the time frame can be identified in terms of the time difference between the downlink radio frame and the uplink line radio frame. Note that the term “synchronize” and variations thereof may or may not indicate an exact alignment of time, but may indicate multiple events or overlap of multiple events that occur within a time range from each other. Should.

  If the eNB 160 determines 606 to adjust timing, the eNB 160 may transmit 608 one or more timing advance commands. For example, the eNB 160 can transmit a timing advance command to the UE 102 to adjust transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. Thereby, the UE 120 can advance or delay the timing of the non-PCell group signal transmitted from the UE 102 corresponding to the eNB 160 based on one or more timing advance commands transmitted from the eNB 160.

  The timing advance command in the random access response can be sent 608 from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 after the UE 102 sends the random access preamble (to the eNB 160). Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command (referring to the timing advance command MAC element) can be transmitted 608 from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. As the relative position of the UE 102 changes relative to the corresponding eNB 160, uplink transmission timing may need to be adjusted from time to time to accommodate changes in RF delay. In this way, the eNB 160 can define that all signals from the UE to the eNB 160 arrive at the eNB 160 almost simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. One configuration of the timing advance command is given as follows.

In the case of a random access response, the 11-bit timing advance command T _A has T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . , And can instruct the _{N TA} value by the index value of 1282, the amount of time alignment _is given by N TA = _{T A} × 16.

In other cases, a 6-bit timing advance command T _A is generated when T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . , 63 index value can indicate an adjustment from the current _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, old} ) to a new _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, new} ), where _{NTA, new} = _{NTA a old + (T a -31) ×} 16. In this case, the adjustment of the _NTA value by a positive or negative amount indicates that the uplink transmission timing is advanced or delayed by a given amount, respectively.

  Regardless of whether the eNB 160 determines 606 to adjust timing, the eNB 160 can optionally transmit 610 control information using one or more cell groups. For example, the eNB 160 can schedule communication for one or more groups of cells 119,121. As an example, the eNB 160 can allocate communication resources to the UE 102 by sending a random access response to the UE 102. In some cases, scheduling information may be sent to UE 102 using PDCCH.

  For example, a PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information can be transmitted by the eNB 160. The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The eNB 160 can scramble the CRC using RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  In one configuration, PSCells cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. This means that no other cell can schedule the PSCell. In contrast, PSCell can schedule other cells. Thus, for example, eNB 160 may schedule one or more SCells and / or PSCells using PSCells. However, the eNB 160 cannot schedule a PSCell using a separate SCell.

  The eNB 160 may optionally transmit 612 one or more path loss parameters. This can be done, for example, for one or more non-PCell groups. In one configuration, the eNB 160 may manage one or more path loss parameters for one or more non-PCell groups. For example, when the SCell 121 belongs to a non-PCell group, the eNB 160 uses a typical path loss parameter (for example, pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell) to designate the non-PCell group cell 121 as a path loss criterion. )) Rather than a path loss parameter (eg, pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)) The eNB 160 can transmit 612 this path loss parameter to the UE 102. The path loss parameter is a path loss parameter. The cell used by UE 102 to measure the loss can be specified.

  The eNB 160 may optionally receive 614 one or more path loss indicators. For example, the eNB 160 may receive a path loss indicator (from the UE 102) that indicates a path loss as measured by the UE 102 corresponding to the reference cell specified by the transmitted path loss parameter. The eNB 160 may use the path loss indicator to adjust transmissions to the UE 102 (eg, increase or decrease amplification for the signal).

  The eNB 160 may optionally assign 616 a PUCCH for the PSCell. For example, the eNB 160 may assign 616 one or more PUCCHs corresponding to one or more non-PCell groups. For example, in addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell119, PSCell121 can have PUCCH. As an example, when the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell 121. In one configuration, the eNB 160 sends a configuration message or request to the UE 102 that commands or requests the UE 102 to establish a PUCCH (to the PSCell 121).

  The eNB 160 may optionally receive 618 one or more ACK / NACKs on one or more PSCells (eg, for one or more non-PCell groups). ACK / NACK corresponding to the non-PCell group cell 121 in the group can be received 618 by the eNB 160 on the PSCell 121 in the group. ACK / NACK (s) can optionally be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell 121. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) corresponding to cells 119, 121 in the group may be received on PCell 119 or PSCell 121 in the group. The eNB 160 may use one or more ACK / NACKs to retransmit information that was not correctly received by the UE 102.

  eNB 160 may communicate 620 with UE 102 using one or more cell groups. For example, the eNB 160 may transmit and / or receive information to the UE 102 using one or more PCell group cells 119 and one or more non-PCell group cells 121.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating one configuration of an eNB group operations module 782 that may be used to enable multi-group communication on the eNB 160. In general, eNB group operations module 782 may allow eNB 160 to communicate with UE 102 using multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121. The eNB group operations module 782 includes a group transmission module 796, a PSCell designation module 794, a group timing module 786, a group scheduling module 792, a group path loss module 790, a group PUCCH module 784, and a group hybrid. One or more of automatic repeat request (HARQ) modules 788 may be included.

  The group transmission module 796 can determine the group transmission capability of the UE 102. For example, the group transmission module 796 can use the received signal information 707 to determine whether the UE 102 can use multiple groups of one or more cells 119, 121 to communicate with one or more eNBs 160. . As described above, the UE 102 may need to have multiple transmitters in order to use multiple transmission timing alignments. As an example, the received signal information 707 can indicate whether multiple timing adjustments are possible for the UE 102 (in a combination of bands) and / or can indicate the maximum supportable number of uplink timing adjustment groups. This determination can be based on signaling received from UE 102, which was sent in one direction or in response to a signal sent from eNB 160.

  Group transmission module 796 can generate group configuration information 757 based on the determination of whether UE 102 is capable of supporting multi-group communication. The group configuration information 757 can be used to configure communication with the UE 102. As an example, the group configuration information 757 can be used to determine whether to establish additional information channel (s) (eg, cell 121) with the UE 102, whether to send PSCell designation information, and so on.

  Primary / secondary cell (PSCell) designation module 794 may designate PSCells for one or more groups of non-PCell group cell (s) 121. For example, the eNB 160 can generate PSCell designation information 759 that designates a specific SCell as a PSCell. In some cases and / or configurations, PSCell designation information 759 can be generated based on a group communication request 751 received from UE 102. For example, PSCell designation information 759 can be sent to the UE 102 in response to a random access request. Instead, the eNB 160 can generate and send PSCell designation information 759 to the UE 102 in one direction.

  For example, the PSCell specification module 794 can specify one or more PSCells using UE-specific (explicit or implicit) radio resource management (RRC) signaling. In an example of implicit signaling, an SCell (in a non-PCell group) configured with a random access channel (RACH) may be implicitly designated as a PSCell for the corresponding non-PCell group. In another example, the PSCell may be designated as the lowest SCell in the group configuration (of the non-PCell group). In yet another example, the SCell configuration has a reference cell for uplink timing, and this reference cell is a PSCell. For example, cells having cell indexes # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 can be PCell, SCell # 1, SCell # 2, SCell # 3, and SCell # 4, respectively. Continuing the example, SCell # 2 may have cell index # 1 as a reference cell for uplink timing, which indicates that SCell # 1 is a PSCell for SCell # 2. means. SCell # 3 may have cell index # 0 as a reference cell for uplink timing or may not have a reference cell parameter for uplink timing, which is 3 belongs to a group including PCell.

  Alternatively, the PSCell designation module 794 can designate one or more PSCells using UE specific explicit RRC signaling. For example, eNB 160 may send PSCell designation information 759 to UE 102 that explicitly identifies one or more PSCells (for one or more non-PCell groups).

  Group timing module 786 can manage transmission timing for one or more groups. For example, the group timing module 786 can send a timing advance command 761 to the UE 102 to adjust transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. As an example, the eNB 102 may obtain timing information 753 from the UE 102 that indicates a time difference between a given time and a received uplink radio frame. Based on this difference, the eNB 102 can generate one or more timing advance commands 761. The eNB 160 may transmit one or more timing advance commands 761. For example, the group timing module 786 can transmit a timing advance command 761 to the UE 102 to adjust transmission timing for one or more non-PCell groups. This allows the UE 102 to advance or delay the timing of the non-PCell group signal transmitted from the UE 102 corresponding to the eNB 160 based on one or more timing advance commands 761 sent from the eNB 160.

  The timing advance command 761 in the random access response can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 after the UE 102 transmits a random access preamble (for example, the group communication request 751) to the eNB 160. Whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the uplink transmission timing of the UE 102, another timing advance command 761 (referring to the timing advance command MAC element) can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102. As the relative position of the UE 102 changes relative to the corresponding eNB 160, uplink transmission timing may be adjusted from time to time to account for changes in RF delay. In this way, the eNB 160 can be defined such that all signals from the UE to the eNB 160 arrive at the eNB 160 almost simultaneously or within a cyclic prefix in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. One configuration of the timing advance command 761 is given as follows.

In the case of a random access response, an 11-bit timing advance command T _A 761 indicates that T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . , And can instruct the _{N TA} value by the index value of 1282, the amount of time alignment _is given by N TA = _{T A} × 16.

In other cases, a 6-bit timing advance command T _A 761 is generated when T _A = 0, 1, 2,. . . 63, the index value of 63 can indicate an adjustment from the current _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, old} ) to a new _NTA value (denoted as _{NTA, new} ), _{NTA, new} = _{NTA, old} + (T _A −31) × 16. In this case, the adjustment of the _NTA value by a positive or negative amount indicates that the uplink transmission timing is advanced or delayed by a given amount, respectively.

  Group scheduling module 792 can be used to schedule communications for one or more groups of cells 119, 121. For example, the group scheduling block / module 792 can generate multi-group control information 763 that allocates communication resources to the UE 102 by sending a random access response to the UE 102. This can be done in response to a group communication request 751 (eg, a random access request). In some cases, scheduling information (eg, multi-group control information 763) may be sent to UE 102 using PDCCH.

  For example, PDCCH (including multi-group control information 763 as an example) for scheduling system information or paging information can be transmitted by eNB 160. The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The multi-group (downlink) control information 763 conveyed by the PDCCH may have an attached CRC. The eNB 160 can scramble the CRC using RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  In one configuration, PSCells cannot be cross-carrier scheduled. This means that no other cell can schedule the PSCell. In contrast, PSCell can schedule other cells. Thus, for example, eNB 160 may use multi-group configuration information 763 to schedule one or more SCells and / or PSCells using PSCells. However, the eNB 160 cannot schedule a PSCell using a separate SCell.

  A group path loss module 790 can be used to manage one or more path loss parameters for one or more non-PCell groups. For example, if the SCell 121 belongs to a non-PCell group, the group path loss module 790 may specify a typical path loss parameter (e.g., for specifying the non-PCell group cell 121 as a path loss criterion). One or more path loss parameters 765 (eg, pathlossReference-r11 (psCell, sCell)) can be generated instead of pathlossReference-r10 (pCell, sCell). The path loss parameter 765 can specify the cell used by the UE 102 to measure the path loss.

  Group PUCCH module 784 may be used to generate PUCCH configuration information 767 that allocates one or more PUCCHs corresponding to one or more non-PCell groups. For example, in addition to PUCCH corresponding to PCell119, PSCell121 can have PUCCH. Typically, PUCCH can be allocated only to PCell 119 for uplink transmission power reduction. However, when the UE 102 is configured using a plurality of uplink time alignments, the eNB 160 can allocate the PUCCH to the PSCell 121 by sending the PUCCH configuration information 767 to the UE 102.

  Group HARQ module 788 may receive one or more ACK / NACK 755 for one or more non-PCell groups. The eNB 160 may use one or more ACK / NACKs 755 to retransmit information that was not correctly received by the UE 102. For example, the group HARQ module 788 can generate retransmission information 769. The retransmission information 769 can specify data to be retransmitted to the UE 102.

  The ACK / NACK 755 corresponding to the non-PCell group cell 121 in the group can be received by the eNB 160 on the PSCell 121 in the group. ACK / NACK (s) 755 can optionally be mapped to PUCCH in PSCell 121. In some configurations, HARQ-ACK (s) 755 corresponding to cells 119, 121 in the group may be received on PCell 119 or PSCell 121 in the group.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink transmission timing. The transmission of the uplink radio frame number i875 from the UE 102 can be started N _TA × T _S seconds 873 before the UE 102 starts the corresponding downlink radio frame i871. However, 0 ≦ N _TA ≦ 20512 and T _S = 1 / (15000 × 2048) seconds. In other words, the UE 102 may start to transmit the uplink radio frame i875 before N _TA × T _S seconds 873 before receiving the corresponding downlink radio frame i871.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating another example of uplink transmission timing. The uplink transmission timing of one or more SCells (eg, for PUSCH and / or SRS) is the same as PCell. As shown in FIG. 9, the transmission of the PCell uplink radio frame number i979 from UE102 may be initiated before _{N TA} × _{T S} seconds 981 starts in at UE102 corresponding PCell downlink radio frame I977. Transmission of one or more SCell uplink radio frame numbers i985a-c from the UE 102 can be started N _TA × T _S seconds 981 before the UE 102 of the PCell downlink radio frame i977 starts. As can be seen in FIG. 9, the downlink radio frame numbers i983a to c98c may vary in timing.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a deployment scenario. In this example, two eNBs 1060a-b can both communicate with the UE 1002. eNB A 1060a may include one or more antennas 1080a-m for communicating with UE 1002. eNB B 1060b may include one or more antennas 1080n-z for communicating with UE 1002. UE 1002 may include antennas 1022a-n for communicating with eNB A 1060a and eNB B 1060b. In this example, UE 1002 can communicate on two non-collocated sites (eg, eNBs 1060a-b) on multiple carriers. As shown, each communication path 1087a-b can be in a different propagation environment. This can cause a difference in uplink transmission timing for communication frames on path A 1087a and path B 1087b. In one configuration, one group of cells or channels can be established on path A 1087a while another group of cells or channels can be established on path B 1087b. The scenario shown in FIG. 10 could similarly occur with a remote antenna or a remote radio head.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating another example of a deployment scenario. In this example, eNB 1160 can communicate with UE 1102 using multiple signals. The eNB 1160 may include one or more antennas 1180a-n to communicate with the UE 1102 via repeaters A and B 1189a-b. Repeater A 1189a may include one or more antennas 1191a-m to communicate with eNB 1160 and / or UE 1102. Repeater B 1189b may include one or more antennas 1191n-z to communicate with eNB 1160 and / or UE 1102. UE 1102 may include antennas 1122a-n to communicate with eNB 1160 via repeaters A and B 1189a-b. In this example, UE 1102 can communicate with eNB 1160 through path A and B 1187a-b. As shown, each communication path 1187a-b can be in a different propagation environment. This may cause a difference in uplink transmission timing for communication frames on path A 1187a and path B 1187b. For example, different component carriers can have substantially different propagation environments between path A 1187a and path B 1187b due to the different frequency selectivity of repeaters 1189a-b, and therefore different flight times. It will be possible. In one configuration, one group of cells or channels can be established on path A 1187a, while another group of cells or channels can be established on path B 1187b.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of uplink transmission timing in a plurality of cell groups 1293a-b. In this example, it can be seen that group A 1293a includes PCell 1295 and SCell1 1297a. Further, the group B 1293b includes PSCell (eg, SCell2) 1297b, SCell3 1297c, and SCell4 1297d. In group A 1293a, the uplink transmission timing 1299a of SCell1 1297a (eg, for PUSCH and / or SRS) may be the same as the uplink transmission timing 1299a for the corresponding PCell 1295 in group A 1293a. More specifically, the uplink transmission timing 1299a for the SCell1 uplink radio frame i1285 can be matched with the uplink transmission timing 1299a of the PCell uplink radio frame i1279 (for example, can be adjusted to substantially match). As shown in FIG. 12, the transmission timing 1299a of the PCell uplink radio frame i1279 is based on the PCell downlink radio frame i1277. The timing of the SCell1 downlink radio frame i1283 may vary.

  In group B 1293b, the uplink transmission timing 1299b of SCell3 1297c (eg, for PUSCH and / or SRS) should be the same as the uplink transmission timing 1299b for the corresponding PSCell (SCell2) 1297b in group B 1293b Can do. More specifically, the uplink transmission timing 1299b for the SCell3 uplink radio frame i1204b can be matched to the uplink transmission timing 1299b of the PSCell (SCell2) uplink radio frame i1204a (for example, can be adjusted to substantially match). ). As illustrated in FIG. 12, the transmission timing 1299b of the PSCell (SCell2) uplink radio frame i1204a is based on the PSCell (SCell2) downlink radio frame i1202a. The timing for the SCell3 downlink radio frame i1202b and the SCell4 downlink radio frame i1202c may vary. As shown in FIG. 12, the concept of multiple serving cells is that each serving cell 1295, 1297a-d has a respective downlink 1277, 1283, 1202a-c, and optionally each uplink 1279, 1285, 1204a-b may be included. Each serving downlink carrier and uplink carrier may belong to one serving cell 1295, 1297a-d.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink transmission timing adjustments 1318 and 1320 in the random access responses 1314 and 1316. In this example, two groups 1393a-b are shown. Group A 1393a includes a PCell downlink 1306, a PCell uplink 1308, an SCell1 downlink 1310a, and an SCell1 uplink 1312a. The PCell downlink 1306 includes a random access response 1314 used for timing adjustment 1318 on the PCell uplink 1308 and the SCell uplink 1312a.

  In this example, group B 1393b includes PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1310b, PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1312b, SCell3 downlink 1310c, SCell3 uplink 1312c, and SCell4 downlink 1310d. The PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1310b includes a random access response 1316 used for timing adjustment 1320 on the PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1312b and the SCell3 uplink 1312c.

  The timing advance command in the random access responses 1314 and 1316 can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 on the PCell downlink 1306 or the PSCell downlink 1310b after the UE 102 transmits the random access preamble on the PCell downlink 1306 or the PSCell downlink 1310b. The random access responses 1314 and 1316 can be scheduled by a PDCCH including a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), which is an identifier used for scheduling the PDSCH including the random access responses 1314 and 1316.

  The PCell uplink 1308 or SCell uplink 1312a-c to which the received random access response 1314, 1316 corresponds corresponds to which serving or downlink cell 1306, 1310a-d the random access response 1314, 1316 was scheduled. Can be distinguished according to For example, the UE determines which serving cell downlinks 1306, 1310b the random access responses 1314, 1316 are scheduled to, so that which cell uplinks 1308, 1312a-c are received by the received random access responses 1314, 1316. It can be determined whether it corresponds. Serving cell downlinks 1306, 1310b scheduled for random access responses 1314, 1316 can be determined by identifying cell downlinks 1306, 1310b having HARQ entities, PDCCHs or PDSCHs for random access responses. The random access response 1314 scheduled for the PCell downlink 1306 may be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment 1318 for the PCell uplink 1308 in the same group 1393a and for any other SCell (s) 1312a. The random access response 1316 scheduled for the PSCell downlink 1310b can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment 1320 for the PSCell uplink 1312b and any other SCell (s) 1312c in the same group 1393b.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of uplink transmission timing adjustments 1432, 1434, 1436, 1438, 1440 from the timing advance command MAC control elements 1422, 1424, 1426, 1428, 1430. In this example, two groups 1493a-b are shown. Group A 1493a includes PCell downlink 1406, PCell uplink 1408, SCell1 downlink 1410a and SCell1 uplink 1412a. The PCell downlink 1406 includes a timing advance command MAC control element 1422 that can be used for timing adjustment 1432 on the PCell uplink 1408 and the SCell1 uplink 1412a. SCell1 downlink 1410a includes a timing advance command MAC control element 1424 that can be used for timing adjustment 1434 on PCell uplink 1408 and SCell1 uplink 1412a.

  In this example, group B 1493b includes PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1410b, PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1412b, SCell3 downlink 1410c, SCell3 uplink 1412c, and SCell4 downlink 1410d. PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1410b includes a timing advance command MAC control element 1426 that can be used for timing adjustment 1436 on PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1412b and SCell3 uplink 1412c. SCell3 downlink 1410c includes a timing advance command MAC control element 1428 that can be used for timing adjustment 1438 on PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1412b and SCell3 uplink 1412c. The SCell4 downlink 1410d includes a timing advance command MAC control element 1430 that can be used for timing adjustment 1440 on the PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1412b and the SCell3 uplink 1412c.

  Timing advance command MAC control elements 1422, 1424, 1426, 1428, 1430 can be transmitted from the eNB 160 to the UE 102 whenever the eNB 160 wants to change the UE 102 uplink transmission timing. Whether the received timing advance command MAC control element 1422, 1424, 1426, 1428, 1430 is for PCell 1408 or PSCell 1412b is scheduled to which serving cell downlink 1406, 1410a-d by the timing advance command MAC control element. Can be distinguished based on what has been done. Serving cell downlinks 1406, 1410a-d scheduled with timing advance command MAC control elements have cell downlinks with HARQ entities, PDCCH or PDSCH for timing advance command MAC control elements 1422, 1424, 1426, 1428, 1430 This can be determined by identifying 1406, 1410a-d. Timing advance command MAC control elements 1422, 1424 scheduled for any serving cell downlink 1406, 1410a in group 1493a including PCell downlink 1406, for PCell uplink 1408 in the same group 1493a, and any SCell uplink ( Can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment 1432, 1434 for 1412a. Timing advance command MAC control elements 1426, 1428, 1430 scheduled for any serving cell downlink 1410b-d in group 1493b including PSCell downlink 1410b are for PSCell uplink 1412b in the same group 1493b and any other Can be used for uplink transmission timing adjustment 1436, 1438, 1440 for SCell uplink (s) 1412c. In another configuration, the MAC headers of the timing advance command MAC control elements 1422, 1424, 1426, 1428, 1430 can indicate which group 1493a-b the command corresponds to.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of common space monitoring in a plurality of groups 1593a-b. In this example, two groups 1593a-b are shown. Group A 1593a includes PCell downlink 1506, PCell uplink 1508, SCell1 downlink 1510a and SCell1 uplink 1512a. The PCell downlink 1506 includes a common search space 1542. The PCell uplink 1508 includes a random access channel (RACH) 1546 and / or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) 1548.

  In this example, group B 1593b includes PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1510b, PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1512b, SCell3 downlink 1510c, SCell3 uplink 1512c, and SCell4 downlink 1510d. The PSCell (SCell2) downlink 1510b includes a common search space 1544. The PSCell (SCell2) uplink 1512b includes RACH 1550 and / or PUCCH 1552.

  Typically, there is only one common search space in PCell and there is no common search space in SCell. However, multiple common search spaces 1542, 1544 can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. The UE 102 can monitor a set of PDCCH candidates for control information regarding one or more activated serving cell downlinks 1506, 1510a-d, as configured by higher layer signaling. More than one serving cell can be configured by RRC signaling and the serving cell can be activated or deactivated by MAC signaling.

  From a search space perspective, a set of PDCCH candidates to be monitored can be defined. There is a common search space 1542 on the PCell downlink 1506, and a UE-specific search space on the PCell downlink 1506 and / or one or more SCell downlinks 1510a-d. The common search space 1542 is typically cell specific and can only be on the PCell downlink 1506, although multiple common search spaces 1542, 1544 can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. Thus, the common search space 1544 can be defined on the PSCell 1510b (for example, SCell2). A UE-specific search space can be defined by a cell radio network temporary identifier or C-RNTI (eg, user equipment identifier (UEID)) and can be prepared for each serving cell downlink 1506, 1510a-d.

  In the common search spaces 1542 and 1544, various types of information or data can be transmitted. For example, in the common search spaces 1542 and 1544, PDCCH for scheduling system information or paging information, random access related information, or normal UE data can be transmitted. The physical layer of the UE 102 can be configured by an upper layer using RNTI. The UE 102 can decode the PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the RNTI. The downlink control information conveyed by the PDCCH can have an attached CRC. The CRC can be scrambled by the RNTI. For example, the CRC may be XORed with the RNTI. Some examples of radio network temporary identifiers (RNTI) include system information RNTI (SI-RNTI), paging RNTI (P-RNTI), cell RNTI (C-RNTI), random access RNTI (RA-RNTI), semi-persistent. Stent scheduling C-RNTI (SPS C-RNTI), temporary C-RNTI, transmission power control physical uplink control channel RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI) and transmission power control physical uplink shared channel RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI) )including. In some cases, the UE 102 can monitor the RNTI (eg, if it is configured to be monitored). RA-RNTI and temporary C-RNTI can be used for PDCCH random access related scheduling information.

  In order to have multiple time alignments, the UE 102 may need to perform a random access procedure on the PSCell uplink 1512b. Thus, UE 102 configured with SCell 1512b with RACH 1550 may be required to monitor PDCCH in common search space 1542 in PSCell downlink 1510b in addition to common search space 1542 in PCell downlink 1506. Since SI-RNTI, P-RNTI and SPS C-RNTI may be sufficient to be monitored in common search space 1542 in PCell downlink 1506, it may not be necessary to monitor them with PSCell. Therefore, C-RNTI, RA-RNTI, Temporary C-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, and TPC-PUSCH-RNTI may be monitored by UE 102 in the common search space in PSCell downlink 1510b.

  Multiple PUCCHs 1548, 1552 can be used in accordance with the systems and methods disclosed herein. For example (as assigned by eNB 160), for example, PUCCH 1548 may be configured on PCell uplink 1508 and PUCCH 1552 may be configured on PSCll uplink 1512b.

  FIG. 16 shows various components available for user equipment (UE) 1602. As described above, the UE 1602 can be used as the UEs 102, 1002, and 1102. UE 1602 includes a processor 1654 that controls the operation of UE 1602. The processor 1654 may be referred to as a CPU. Memory 1660 can store read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a combination of the two, or information to provide instructions 1656a and data 1658a to processor 1654 Types of devices can be included. A portion of the memory 1660 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). Processor 1654 may also have instructions 1656b and data 1658b. The instructions 1656b and / or data 1658b read into the processor 1654 may also include instructions 1656a and / or data 1658a from the memory 1660 that are read for execution or processing by the processor 1654. Instructions 1656b may be executed by processor 1654 to implement the systems and methods disclosed herein.

  UE 1602 may also include a housing containing one or more transmitters 1658 and one or more receivers 1620 to allow transmission and reception of data. Transmitter (s) 1658 and receiver (s) 1620 may be combined into one or more transceivers. One or more antennas 1622a-n can be attached to the housing and electrically coupled to the transceiver 1618.

  The various components of UE 1602 are coupled together by a bus system 1666 that can include a power bus, a control signal bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. However, for clarity, the various buses are illustrated as bus system 1666 in FIG. UE 1602 may also include a digital signal processor (DSP) 1662 for use in processing signals. UE 1602 may also include a communication interface 1664 that provides user access to the functions of UE 1602. The UE 1602 shown in FIG. 16 is a functional block diagram rather than a list of specific components.

  FIG. 17 shows various components that can be utilized for an evolved Node B (eNB) 1760. The eNB 1760 can be used as one or more of the eNBs 160, 1060, 1160 described above. eNB 1760 may include components similar to those discussed above with respect to UE 1602, and these components may reside in processor 1768, memory 1774, processor 1768 that provides instructions 1770a and data 1772a to processor 1768, or Or instructions 1770b and data 1772b that can be read into it, a housing, transceiver (s) containing one or more transmitters 1717 and one or more receivers 1778 (which may be combined with one or more transceivers 1776) One or more antennas 1780a-n electrically coupled to 1776, a bus system 1782, a DSP 1776 for use in signal processing, a communication interface 1778, and the like.

  The term “computer-readable medium” refers to any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or processor. The term “computer-readable medium” may refer herein to non-transitory and tangible computer and / or processor-readable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable or processor-readable media can be RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage device, or desired program in the form of instructions. Any other medium that can be used to carry or store code or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer or processor can be provided. In this specification, a disc and a disc are a compact disc (CD), a laser disc, an optical disc, a digital versatile disc (DVD), a floppy disc. Disk (disk) and Blu-ray (registered trademark) disk (disk), the disk (disk) usually reproduces data magnetically, while the disk (disk) optically using a laser To play data.

  It should be noted that one or more of the methods described herein may be implemented in hardware and / or performed using hardware. For example, one or more of the methods described herein may include a chipset, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a large scale integrated circuit (LSI), or an integrated circuit, etc. And / or can be implemented using them.

  Each of the methods disclosed herein includes one or more steps or implementations for achieving the described method. The method steps and / or implementations may be interchanged with one another and / or combined into a single step without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or execution is required for proper operation of the described method, the specific steps and / or order of execution and / or use without departing from the scope of the claims. May be modified.

  Of course, the claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components described above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangements, operations and details of the systems, methods and apparatus described herein without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims (20)

User equipment (UE) configured for multi-group communication, wherein the user equipment (UE)
Processor;
Memory in electronic communication with the processor;
Instructions stored in the memory,
Detect multiple cells;
Use multiple groups of one or more cells;
Said instructions being executable to adjust the uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group such that each group has the same timing;
The plurality of groups is a user equipment (UE) including a primary cell (PCell) group including a PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including a PCell. The instructions are
2. The timing advance command is received to determine to which group the timing advance command should be sent; and further executable to adjust the uplink transmission timing for the group. UE.   The UE of claim 1, wherein a path loss criterion for SCell in the PCell group is selected from PCell or the SCell, and the PCell is not used as a path loss criterion for SCell in the non-PCell group. .   The UE of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to send information indicating a plurality of uplink time alignment capabilities.   The UE of claim 4, wherein the multiple uplink time alignment capabilities relate to supporting multiple uplink timing adjustments in a band combination. An evolved Node B (eNB) configured for multi-group communication, wherein the eNB
Processor;
Memory in electronic communication with the processor;
Instructions stored in the memory,
Use multiple groups of one or more cells;
Said instructions executable to receive an uplink signal at an uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group such that each group has the same timing;
The plurality of groups are an evolved Node B (eNB) including a primary cell (PCell) group including a PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including a PCell.   The eNB of claim 6, wherein the instructions are further executable to receive information indicating a plurality of uplink time alignment capabilities of a user equipment (UE).   The eNB of claim 7, wherein the multiple uplink time alignment capability instructions relate to supporting multiple uplink timing adjustments in a band combination. The instructions are
Determine to which group the timing advance command should be sent;
The eNB of claim 6, further executable to send the timing advance command to the group.   The eNB of claim 6, wherein a path loss criterion for an SCell in the PCell group is selected from a PCell or the SCell; the PCell is not used as a path loss criterion for an SCell in the non-PCell group. . A method for multi-group communication on a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
Detecting multiple cells;
Using multiple groups of one or more cells; and adjusting the uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group so that each group has the same;
With
The plurality of groups include a primary cell (PCell) group including a PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including a PCell. The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a timing advance command; determining which group the timing advance command is for; and adjusting the uplink transmission timing for the group.   The method according to claim 18, wherein a path loss criterion SCell in the PCell group is selected from PCell or the SCell, and the PCell is not used as a path loss criterion for SCells in the non-PCell group.   The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting information indicating a plurality of uplink time alignment capabilities.   15. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple uplink time alignment capabilities relate to supporting multiple uplink timing adjustments in a band combination. A method for multi-group communication on an evolved Node B (eNB), the method comprising:
Use multiple groups of one or more cells;
Receiving an uplink signal at an uplink transmission timing of one or more cells of each group, so that each group has the same timing;
With
The plurality of groups include a primary cell (PCell) group including a PCell and one or more non-primary (non-PCell) groups not including a PCell.   28. The method of claim 27, further comprising receiving information indicating a plurality of uplink time alignment capabilities of user equipment (UE).   The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of uplink time alignment capability instructions relate to supporting a plurality of uplink timing adjustments in a band combination. Determining to which group the timing advance command should be sent; and transmitting the timing advance command to the group;
The method of claim 16, further comprising:   The method according to claim 16, wherein a path loss criterion for SCell in the PCell group is selected from PCell or the SCell, and the PCell is not used as a path loss criterion for SCell in the non-PCell group. .

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